five o'clock
`` Certainly , '' answered the man , taking his pen again , and writing rapidly . Volterra was almost as anxious to get rid of him as Malipieri himself . What the latter had said had informed him that in spite of the water the vaults could be reached , and he was in haste to go down . He had , indeed , noted the fact that whereas Sabina had left his house with Sassi at five o'clock , the latter had been taken to the hospital only three quarters of an hour later , and he wondered where she could be ; but it did not even occur to him as possible that she should be in Malipieri 's apartment . The idea would have seemed preposterous . The detective rose , folded the sheets of paper and placed them in a large pocket-book which he produced . `` And now , gentlemen , '' he said , `` we have only one more formality to fulfil , before I have the honour of taking my leave . ''