half past eight o'clock
He read the paper through three times , then tore it carefully into tiny pieces , doing it so accurately that they were all nearly of the same size and shape . Any one who should attempt to piece together a note which Mr. Barnes had thus destroyed , would have a task . Standing by the window he tossed them high in the air and saw them scattered by the wind . At half past eight o'clock he stood before the apartment-house in East Thirtieth Street . The janitor was sweeping from the pavement a light snow which had fallen in the early hours of the morning . Mr. Barnes without speaking to the man walked into the vestibule and scanned the names over the letter-boxes . None of them contained the one which he sought , but there was no card in No. 5 .