nine o'clock
I did n't , and made no bones of pretence about it . Mary was a child ; there was no doubt about that ; but as I girded up my courage for this undertaking , I thought how much those pretty eyes would have encouraged me , and how sweet that childish laugh would have been in mid-Atlantic . But there -- that 's no part of this story . We were going down to Plymouth by the nine o'clock mail from Paddington , and there was not a wealth of time to spare . So soon as we had dined , I went up to my room to put the small things of need away , meaning to be no more than five minutes at the work ; but , to my amazement , the whole of the place had been turned utterly inside out by one who had been there before me . My trunk lay upside down ; my writing-case was unlocked and stripped , my diary was torn and rent , my clothes were scattered ; I thought at first that a common cheat of a hotel thief had been busy snapping up trifles ; but I got a shock greater than any I had known since Martin Hall 's death when I felt for his writing , which lay secure in its case , and found that , while the main narrative was intact , his letters to the police at New York , his plans , and his sketches had been taken . For the moment the discovery made me reel .