five minutes to eight
As the moving-picture actors , escorted by the ensign , followed their trunks to the launch , Billy looked after them with a feeling of great loneliness . He was aware that from the palace his carriage had been followed ; that drawn in a cordon around the hotel negro policemen covertly observed him . That President Ham still hoped to recover his lost prestige and his lost money was only too evident . It was just five minutes to eight . Billy ran to his room , and with his suit-case in his hand slipped down the back stairs and into the garden . Cautiously he made his way to the gate in the wall , and in the street outside found Claire awaiting him . With a cry of relief she clasped his arm .