two in the morning
He had not had time to send a telegram to Mr. Peters in London , or to Monsieur Gautier , the name by which The Sparrow told him he was known at his flat in the Rue des Petits Champs , in the centre of Paris . He longed to be able to communicate with his all-powerful friend , but there had been no opportunity . Suddenly the car began to pass through banks of mist , which are usual at night over the low marshes around the mouths of the Rhone . It was about half-past two in the morning . They had passed through the long dark streets of Salon , and were already five or six miles on the broad straight road which runs across the marshes through St. Martin-de-Crau into Arles . Of a sudden Hugh declared that he must have a cigarette , and producing his case handed one to the driver and took one himself . Then he lit the man 's , and afterwards his own .