two o'clock
They had returned to the pretty garden from which they had started on their quest ; and the detective had gone into the town to get the food he needed so badly and to bring back lunch for the lawyer . The lawyer sat on a bench , awaiting his return impatiently . Searching the wood like a questing hound had given him also a fine appetite . It was soon after two o'clock that Pollyooly made the acquaintance of the boy Edward , or the boy Edward made the acquaintance of Pollyooly . It is difficult to be sure how these things happened . But both of them were lonely ; Pollyooly was of far too simple and direct a nature to be much hampered by the cold conventions of a sophisticated civilisation ; and Edward was but ten . For all his extreme youth , he was an agreeable companion ; and so it came about that Pollyooly , who had meant to return to the house at three o'clock , was detained by Edward and the sea till half-past four .