About five o'clock
My fair-haired companion was , of course , Second Lieutenant Edgar Gray Doe ; and it was in keeping with the destiny that entwined our lives that we should pass the fat policeman together . And now I had better tell you how it happened . § 2 On August 3 , 1914 , eleven months before my solemn admission into Devonport Dockyard , I was a young schoolboy on my holidays , playing tennis in a set of mixed doubles . About five o'clock a paper-boy entered the tennis-club grounds with the _ Evening News _ . My male opponent , although he was serving , stopped his game for a minute and bought a paper . `` Hang the paper ! '' called I , indifferent to the fact that the Old World was falling about our ears and England 's last day of peace was going down with the afternoon sun .