twenty
minutes to five
For the engine filled up so much of the thoroughfare that the men could neither climb over nor round it , but were forced to enter the town by a circuitous route and find , to their chagrin , Mr. Tippett 's premises completely gutted . For three days all our traffic entered and left the town perforce by the north side ; but two years after , on the completion of the railway line to Troy , these obstructive gatehouses were removed , to give passage to the new Omnibus . Let me proceed to the story of our more recent alarm . At twenty minutes to five , precisely , on Christmas Eve , Mr. Wm. Freethy left his engine-room by the door which opens on the Quay ; turned the key , which he immediately pocketed ; and proceeded towards his mother 's house , at the western end of the town , where he invariably takes tea . The wind was blowing strongly from the east , where it had been fixed for three days , and the thermometer stood at six degrees below freezing . Indeed , I had remarked , early in the morning , that an icicle of quite respectable length -LRB- for a small provincial town -RRB- , depended from the public water-tap under the Methodist Chapel . About twenty minutes after Mr. Freethy 's departure , some children , who were playing about the Quay , observed dense volumes of smoke -LRB- as they thought -RRB- issuing from under the engine-room door .