nine
o'clock
To-night the old Kent Road was swarming , and the further Jones advanced towards the river the thicker seemed the throng . At a flaring public house , and for the price of a shilling , he obtained enough food in the way of sausages and mashed potatoes , to satisfy his hunger , a half pint tankard of beer completed the satisfaction of his inner man , and having bought a couple of packets of navy cut cigarettes and a box of matches , he left the place and pursued his way towards the river . He had exactly tenpence in his pocket , and he fell to thinking as he walked , of the extraordinary monetary fluctuations he had experienced in this city of London . At the Savoy that fatal day he had less than ten pounds , next morning , though robed as a Lord , he had only a penny , the penny had been reduced to a halfpenny by the purchase of a newspaper , the halfpenny swelled to five pounds by Rochester 's gift , the five pounds sprang in five minutes to eight thousand , owing to Voles , the eight thousand to a million eight thousand , owing to Mulhausen , Simms and Cavendish had stripped him of his last cent , the Smithers affair had given him five pounds , now he had only ten pence , and to-morrow at nine o'clock he would have eight thousand . It will be noted that he did not consider that eight thousand his , till it was safe in his pocket in the form of notes -- he had learned by bitter experience to put his trust in nothing but the tangible . He reached the river and the great bridge that spans it here , and on the bridge he paused , leaning his elbow on the parapet , and looking down stream . The waning moon had risen , painting the water with silver ; barge lights and the lights of tugs and police boats shewed points of orange and dribbles of ruffled gold , whilst away down stream to the right , the airy fairy tracery of the Houses of Parliament fretted the sky .