about 6 o'clock
Its Colonial front and three stories of red brick , and windows with small panes , gave it the air of a Washington 's headquarters , which Mr. Stuffer could undoubtedly prove it had been , for his tales were the most convincing arguments that the hostelry had been named by a whimsical fate not too dignified to stoop to punning . There were times when the hungry boarders thought the name facetious , but they conceded it to be quite exact in a descriptive sense , if its brick and mortar were intended to honor monumentally the tales of the host . His first name , August , was not an adjective of limitation as to time , for the proprietor was A. Stuffer every month and day in the year ; and his son Emil , a quiet , inoffensive student of birds , a taxidermist , ornithologist and mechanical engineer , and a graduate of the neighboring Stevens Institute , world-famed for the breadth and thoroughness of its training , was a worthy son in practically applying to birds abundant science and all the art employed by his father to hold and encourage trade among the guests . It was about 6 o'clock when the Tescheron coach drew up at the old port-cochère , and no one but the night clerk was about . He swung the great door open and welcomed them to the hotel office , a large living-room , with a wide brick and rubble fireplace in one corner , dimly lighted by a log fitfully blazing , fed by scant draughts , so deeply was it choked by the pile of ashes from the logs that had served to brighten the busy room the night before . It is important to note this fireplace , for long afterward , when I went forth to gather impressions at first hand , and there heard Mr. Stuffer and his guests warm to the discussion of every topic under the sun , I decided that the glow of inspiration and the stimulating incense of resinous knots , arising from that corner , cast the witchery which wrought conviction in the minds of men less wary than Mr. Tescheron , who might , indeed , have renounced all his worldly possessions had he remained more than six weeks under its spell to escape the horrors of an entanglement in the meshes of foul crime across the river . I see now how it must have affected him -- this fireplace talk .