twenty
minutes to eleven
Behind the fives-court , he thought , would be the spot . Nobody ever went there . It meant a run of three hundred yards there and the same distance back , and there was more than a chance that he might be seen by one of the Powers . In which case he might find it rather hard to explain what he was doing in the middle of the grounds with a couple of ferrets in his possession when the hands of the clock pointed to twenty minutes to eleven . But the odds were against his being seen . He risked it . When the bell rang for the quarter to eleven interval the ferrets were in their new home , happily discussing a piece of meat -- Renford 's contribution , held over from the morning 's meal , -- and O'Hara , looking as if he had never left the passage for an instant , was making his way through the departing mathematical class to apologise handsomely to Mr Banks -- as was his invariable custom -- for his disgraceful behaviour during the morning 's lesson .