half after nine
`` To come free or to die there ! '' That was good Anglo-Saxon . He would make a good American citizen -- if he were in luck . At half after nine the two of them knelt on the roof before the cemented trap . Nothing but raging heat disintegrates cement . So the liberation of this trap , considering the time , was a Herculean task , because it had to be accomplished with little or no noise . Cold chisels , fulcrums , prying , heaving , boring .