ten o'clock
`` That , '' said he , `` finishes my labours , with the exception of a small experiment which I can perform at home . By the way , I picked up a morsel of evidence that Davidson had overlooked . He will be annoyed , and I am not very fond of scoring off a colleague ; but he is too uncivil for me to communicate with . '' * * * * * The coroner 's subpoena had named ten o'clock as the hour at which Thorndyke was to attend to give evidence , but a consultation with a well-known solicitor so far interfered with his plans that we were a quarter of an hour late in starting from the Temple . My friend was evidently in excellent spirits , though silent and preoccupied , from which I inferred that he was satisfied with the results of his labours ; but , as I sat by his side in the hansom , I forbore to question him , not from mere unselfishness , but rather from the desire to hear his evidence for the first time in conjunction with that of the other witnesses . The room in which the inquest was held formed part of a school adjoining the mortuary . Its vacant bareness was on this occasion enlivened by a long , baize-covered table , at the head of which sat the coroner , while one side was occupied by the jury ; and I was glad to observe that the latter consisted , for the most part , of genuine working men , instead of the stolid-faced , truculent `` professional jurymen '' who so often grace these tribunals .