five minutes to twelve
`` Correct ! '' says Alex. `` And now have Cousin Alice put up some sandwiches and the like for us . I got a lot to do ! '' Well , at five minutes to twelve that night they was a Gaflooey truck gasolined its merry way aboard a Forty-second Street ferry . On board it was Alex , the lovely Wilkinson , one thousand storm-proof army overcoats and yours in the faith . I ai n't liable to forget that trip for a long while to come , because I got soaked to the skin -- with water -- and just missed gettin ' pneumonia by one cough . The rain kept gettin ' worse and worse and it had n't a thing on the roads .