twelve o'clock
Don Luis took him aside and , knowing from the papers the sort of man that he was , opened the conversation so as to surprise him from the start : `` Monsieur , '' he said , unfolding his map of France , `` I want to catch up some one who has carried off the woman I love and is making for Nantes by motor . The abduction took place at midnight . It is now about eight o'clock . Suppose that the motor , which is just a hired taxi with a driver who has no inducement to break his neck , does an average of twenty miles an hour , including stoppages -- in twelve hours ' time -- that is to say , at twelve o'clock -- our man will have covered two hundred and forty miles and reached a spot between Angers and Nantes , at this point on the map . '' `` Les Ponts-de-Drive , '' agreed Davanne , who was quietly listening . `` Very well . Suppose , on the other hand , that an aeroplane were to start from Issy-les-Moulineaux at eight o'clock in the morning and travel at the rate of sixty miles an hour , without stopping -- in four hours ' time -- that is to say , at twelve o'clock -- it would reach Les Ponts-de-Drive at the exact same moment as the motor .