two o'clock
`` All the fools are n't dead yet ! '' Then he picked up the _ Lincoln _ and got down to real work . The `` bug '' and his message passed from memory . The following Thursday afternoon a perspiring and dusty stranger from St. Louis , who , with the Metropolitan Art Museum as his objective , was trudging wearily through Central Park , New York City , at two o'clock , paused to gaze with some interest at the obelisk known as Cleopatra 's Needle . The heat rose in shimmering waves from the asphalt of the roadway , but the stranger was used to heat and he was conscientiously engaged in the duty of seeing New York . Opposite the Museum he seated himself upon a bench in the shade of a faded dogwood and wiped the moisture from his eyes . The glare from the unprotected boulevards was terrific .