about seven o'clock
Malipieri might have suspected the porter himself , for it was possible that there might be another key to the outer entrance of the cellar ; but there was a second door further in , to which Masin had put a patent padlock , and even Masin had not the key to that . The little flat bit of steel , with its irregular indentations , was always in Malipieri 's pocket . As he walked , he felt for it , and it was in its place , with his silver pencil-case and the small penknife he always carried for sharpening pencils . The porter could not possibly have picked that lock ; indeed , scarcely any one could have done so without injuring it , and Malipieri had locked it himself at about seven o'clock that evening . Even if the porter could have got in by any means , Malipieri doubted whether he could have reached the inner chamber of the vaults . There was some climbing to be done , and the man was old and stiff in the joints . The place was not so easy to find as might have been supposed , either , after the first breach in the Roman wall was past .