noon
`` Hand it here , '' said a man who stood leaning against the rails beside him , `` my constitution is good , like the British one , but it 's none the worse for a drop o ' brandy after such tough work . '' There was probably truth in what the man said . Desperate work sometimes necessitates a stimulant ; nevertheless , there were men in the Red Brigade who did their desperate work on nothing stronger than water , and Joe was one of these . In three hours the fire was subdued , and before noon of that day it was extinguished . The `` report '' of it , as published by the chief of the Fire-Brigade next morning , recorded that a house in Ladbroke Square , occupied by Mr Blank , a gentleman whose business was `` private '' -- in other words , unknown -- had been set on fire by some `` unknown cause , '' that the whole tenement had been `` burnt out '' and `` the roof off , '' and that the contents of the building were `` insured in the Phoenix . '' Some of the firemen were sent home about daybreak , when the flames first began to be mastered . Joe was among these .