nine o'clock
`` Let ` un alone , '' said the miller ; `` when they wants ` im he 'll be here . He know 'd more about it nor I did . '' That afternoon Fenwick went to the club of which he and Gilmore were both members , and found that his friend was in London . He had been so , at least , that morning at nine o'clock . According to the porter at the club door , Mr. Gilmore called there every morning for his letters as soon as the club was open . He did not eat his breakfast in the house , nor , as far as the porter 's memory went , did he even enter the club . Fenwick had lodged himself at an hotel in the immediate neighbourhood of Pall-Mall , and he made up his mind that his only chance of catching his friend was to be at the steps of the club door when it was opened at nine o'clock .