midnight
It read : `` Your man is near the Torresdale station , on Pennsylvania Railroad ; take cab , and meet me at station . Wait until I come . GALLEGHER . '' With the exception of one at midnight , no other train stopped at Torresdale that evening , hence the direction to take a cab . The train to the city seemed to Gallegher to drag itself by inches . It stopped and backed at purposeless intervals , waited for an express to precede it , and dallied at stations , and when , at last , it reached the terminus , Gallegher was out before it had stopped and was in the cab and off on his way to the home of the sporting editor . The sporting editor was at dinner and came out in the hall to see him , with his napkin in his hand .