three o'clock
`` Why , drat it all ! I mislaid Sammy ! '' she gasped . By three o'clock Johnny Gamble had acquired so much hotel information that his head seemed stuffed . Every bright-eyed financier in the city had nursed the happy thought of a terminal hotel and had made tentative plans -- and had jerked back with quivering tentacles ; for all the property in that neighborhood was about a thousand degrees Fahrenheit . The present increase of value and that of the next half-century had been gleefully anticipated , and the fortunate possessor of a ninety-nine-year lease on a peanut stand felt that he was providing handsomely for his grandchildren . Mr. Gamble detailed these depressing facts to his friend Loring with much vigor and picturesqueness .