three o'clock
By a window sat a stenographer who was transcribing , as they were taken , the notes of the momentous meeting . They had just completed the examination of the torpedo and laid it on the end of the table scarcely an arm 's length from the stenographer . As he finished a page of notes he glanced quickly at his watch . It was exactly three o'clock . Hastily he reached over for the torpedo and with one swift , silent movement tossed it out of the window . Down below , in a clump of rhododendrons , for several moments had been crouching one of the men who had borne the orders to Wu Fang at the strange meeting on the promontory . His eyes seemed riveted at the window above him .