three o'clock
`` I 'll tell you the whole story meself , mister . I was on leave at the time , due to go back to France the next afternoon . I 'd been out spending the evenin ' at my niece 's wot 's married and livin ' out Seven Kings way . Me and her man wot works on the line kept it up a bit late what with yarnin ' about the front an ' that and it must a ' been nigh on three o'clock w ` en I left him to walk back to the Union Jack Club where I had a bed . `` There 's a corfee-stall near their road and the night bein ' crool damp I thought as how a nice cup o ' corfee 'd warm me up afore I went back to the Waterloo Bridge Road . I had me cup o ' corfee and was jes ' a-payin ' the chap what has the pitch w ` en a fellow passes by right in the light o ' the lamp on the stall . It was th ' orficer here , in plain clothes -- shabby-like he was dressed -- but I knew him at once . ''