eight o'clock in the evening
There was one advertisement of a young man found drowned somewhere on the Lambeth shore . What if that should have been George 's fate ? No ; the telegraphic message involved his father-in-law in the fact of his disappearance , and every speculation about him must start from that one point . It was eight o'clock in the evening when Robert got into Liverpool ; too late for anything except to make inquiries as to what vessel had sailed within the last two days for the antipodes . An emigrant ship had sailed at four o'clock that afternoon -- the Victoria Regia , bound for Melbourne . The result of his inquiries amounted to this -- If he wanted to find out who had sailed in the Victoria Regia , he must wait till the next morning , and apply for information of that vessel . Robert Audley was at the office at nine o'clock the next morning , and was the first person after the clerks who entered it .