midnight
Still , he might be in Cambridge giving a summer course or something . At that moment Professor Gasgabelaus , the temporary chairman , a huge man , the periphery of whose abdomen rivalled the circumference of the `` working terrestrial globe '' at the other end of the platform , pounded perspiringly with his gavel and announced that the conference would adjourn until the following Monday morning . It was Friday afternoon , so he had sixty hours in which to connect with Bennie , if Bennie could be discovered . A telegram of inquiry brought no response , and he took the midnight train to Boston , reaching Cambridge about two o'clock the following afternoon . The air trembled with heat . Only by dodging from the shadow of one big elm to another did he manage to reach the Appian Way -- the street given in the university catalogue as Bennie 's habitat -- alive . As he swung open the little wicket gate he realized with an odd feeling that it was the same house where Hooker had lived when a student , twenty-five years before .