midnight
However , his papers were entirely correct , and he climbed up the stairs and wandered along a corridor in which hands and letters from time to time indicated the lair of the R.T.O. Arriving , he found another officer waiting , but no R.T.O. . The other was `` bored stiff , '' he said ; he had sat there an hour , but had seen no sign of the Transport Officer . Peter smiled , and replied that he had no intention whatever of waiting ; he only wanted to know the times of the Boulogne trains . These he discovered by the aid of a railway guide on the table , and selected the midnight train , which would land him in Boulogne in time for the first leave-boat , if the train were punctual and the leave-boat not too early . In any case , he could take the second , which would only mean Victoria a few hours later that same day . And these details settled , he left his luggage in a corner and strolled off into the city . A big city , seen for the first time by oneself alone when one does not know a soul in it , may be intensely boring or intensely interesting .