about ten o'clock
They desired to keep Georgie at a distance , yet they could not refrain from posing before him . They wished to impress upon him the fact that he was an outsider , and they but succeeded in rousing his desire to be an insider , a desire that soon became a determination . For few were the days until he not only knew of the shack but had actually paid it a visit . That was upon a morning when the other boys were in school , Georgie having found himself indisposed until about ten o'clock , when he was able to take nourishment and subsequently to interest himself in this rather private errand . He climbed the Williams ' alley fence , and , having made a modest investigation of the exterior of the shack , which was padlocked , retired without having disturbed anything except his own peace of mind . His curiosity , merely piqued before , now became ravenous and painful . It was not allayed by the mystic manners of the members or by the unnecessary emphasis they laid upon their coldness toward himself ; and when a committee informed him darkly that there were `` secret orders '' to prevent his coming within `` a hundred and sixteen feet '' -- such was Penrod 's arbitrary language -- of the Williams ' yard , `` in any direction '' , Georgie could bear it no longer , but entered his own house , and , in burning words , laid the case before a woman higher up .