six o'clock
` Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof . ' As long as I 've still got the last pair of those blarsted cuff-buttons in my cuffs , '' -- here he took off his coat and displayed to full view the famous heirlooms , which gleamed like a pair of locomotive headlights , -- `` we 'll wait till to-morrow before tearing up the foundations of the castle looking for the others ! '' So they played on , at pool and billiards , for the rest of that Monday afternoon , Hemlock Holmes and the six gilded loafers , while I sat idly in a chair at one side , smoking several good cigars , my job being that of an innocent looker-on , trying to figure out who was the biggest fool in the place , -- the easy-going Earl of Puddingham , for shoveling out good money to my grafting partner , or Holmes himself , for frittering away his brilliant talents in such piffle pastimes . At six o'clock we were served a delectable dinner in the great oak-paneled dining-room of the castle , prepared by the Earl 's French chef , Louis La Violette ; and we passed the evening in the library , sipping away several more bottles of the Earl 's best vintages and listening to the more or less improbable tales of their adventures in the three faraway realms of the world by Messrs. Tooter , Hicks , and Budd , while Holmes managed to pump Harrigan on the Q. T. , and found out from him that the Earl was rated at two million pounds , in the form of several thousand acres of valuable land up in Yorkshire , including one or two good-sized towns . At half-past ten Holmes and I retired for the night , having been assigned to one of the spacious guest-rooms on the third floor ; and soon we were wrapped in slumber . _ Thud -- thud -- thud ! Biff !