about eight o'clock in the evening
The Hotel Dantzic was not small , but it was small compared to some of the larger hotels that Jack was now to investigate . He walked into the first one he found , and he looked about it , and then he walked out , and went into another and looked that over , and then he thought he would try another . He strolled around through the halls , and offices , and reading-rooms , and all the public places ; but the more he saw , the more he wondered what good it would do him to study them . It was about eight o'clock in the evening when he stood in front of the office of the great Equatorial Hotel , feeling very keenly that he was still only a country boy , with very little knowledge of the men and things he saw around him . A broad , heavy hand came down upon his shoulder , and a voice he had heard before asked , heartily : `` John Ogden ? You here ? Did n't I tell you not to stay too long in the city ? ''