nine o'clock
I roared . `` Not at all , sir , '' he said in haste , taking a step or two backward . Inquiries at the little eating-house only served to verify the report of the station-guard . There would be no train before nine o'clock , and that was a very slow one ; what we would call a `` local '' in the States . Sometimes , according to the proprietress , it was so slow that it did n't get in at all . It had been known to amble in as late as one in the afternoon , but when it happened to be later than that it ceased to have an identity of its own and came in as a part of the two o'clock train . Moreover , it carried nothing but third-class carriages and more often than not it had as many as a dozen freight cars attached .