About eight o'clock
An old door was placed lengthwise over the front gate and painted white , and on it , in somewhat clumsy printing , was the announcement : -- `` Quickest way to Endwell Railway-Station . Dry all the way . Admission , one penny . '' About eight o'clock the business men came hurrying along under their umbrellas , for it was still drizzling . They looked at Bernard in a curious way and then at the signboard , but they scarcely grasped the situation , and plunged heroically into the five hundred yards of mud . At nine o'clock a wealthy stockbroker came panting along , late for his train ; so Bernard shouted to him : `` Come my way , Mr Blunt ; it will save you five hundred yards and all that horrid mud ! '' `` Hullo , Gray ; back from school ? ''