four o'clock
By the time the whistle blew , every one of the hundreds of men on the job , save Peterson himself , knew that there was a new boss . There was no formal assumption of authority ; Bannon 's supremacy was established simply by the obvious fact that he was the man who knew how . Systematizing the confusion in one corner , showing another gang how to save handling a big stick twice , finally putting a runway across the drillage of the annex , and doing a hundred little things between times , he made himself master . The afternoon he spent in the little office , and by four o'clock had seen everything there was in it , plans , specifications , building book , bill file , and even the pay roll , the cash account , and the correspondence . The clerk , who was also timekeeper , exhibited the latter rather grudgingly . `` What 's all this stuff ? '' Bannon asked , holding up a stack of unfiled letters .