About five o’clock
My brother could not tell him . Afterwards he found that the vague feeling of alarm had spread to the clients of the underground railway , and that the Sunday excursionists began to return from all over the South-Western `` lung '' -- Barnes , Wimbledon , Richmond Park , Kew , and so forth -- at unnaturally early hours ; but not a soul had anything more than vague hearsay to tell of . Everyone connected with the terminus seemed ill-tempered . About five o'clock the gathering crowd in the station was immensely excited by the opening of the line of communication , which is almost invariably closed , between the South-Eastern and the South-Western stations , and the passage of carriage trucks bearing huge guns and carriages crammed with soldiers . These were the guns that were brought up from Woolwich and Chatham to cover Kingston . There was an exchange of pleasantries : `` You 'll get eaten ! '' `` We 're the beast-tamers ! ''