about four o'clock
said Gabriel . `` It 's all right . That 's the police , protecting us . '' One afternoon , at about four o'clock , there was a violent altercation between two costermongers at the bottom of the street . The porter 's wife at once left her room to listen to the invectives which the adversaries were hurling at each other 's heads . Her back was no sooner turned than a man , young , of medium height and dressed in a grey suit of irreproachable cut , slipped into the house and ran up the staircase . When he came to the third floor , he rang the bell .