eight o'clock
They 'll know whether you 're sick or not , and they 'll have you there , right on the spot to the minute ! '' The prediction was accurate . The too fatherly `` frat seniors '' did all that Fred said they would , and more . For the honour of the `` frat , '' they coached the desperate Ramsey in the technic of Lumen debate , told him many more things to say than could be said in six minutes , and produced him , despairing , ghastly , and bedewed , in the large hall of the Lumen Society at eight o'clock on Friday evening . Four other `` twelve-minute debates '' preceded his and the sound of these , in Ramsey 's ears , was the sound of Gabriel practising on his horn in the early morning of Judgment Day . The members of the society sat , three rows deep , along the walls of the room , leaving a clear oblong of green carpet in the centre , where were two small desks , twenty feet apart , the rostrums of the debaters . Upon a platform at the head of the room sat dreadful seniors , the officers of the society , and , upon benches near the platform , the debaters of the evening were aligned .