nine o'clock
The lumberman had waxed impatient . Fully two thousand dollars of the money he had `` earned '' was still unpaid -- and hard to get . He had gone to the `` Laughing Water '' claim , in vain , and a surly heat was rising in his veins . Bostwick was due , in his car , at nine o'clock , His visit to Goldite was not entirely one of business . He had grown alarmed at the lack of news from Beth . His letters had been ignored . He not only feared for the fate of his affairs of the heart , but perhaps even more for what she might have done with respect to the money she had asked him to return , a very small proportion of which he was now prepared to repay .