eight o'clock
`` I 've heard tell of them , and it 's mighty little good is ever said of them or their like . '' `` Quite so , '' said Meldon . `` So you do your best to get this one out of Ballymoy . '' Meldon , although he still kept Doyle 's bicycle , did not arrive at Portsmouth Lodge until after eight o'clock . Major Kent had waited dinner for him , and was therefore , as even the best men are under such circumstances , in a very bad temper . When Meldon walked into the study he was sitting with _ The Times _ spread out on his knee . `` I have had , '' said Meldon , `` a long and particularly exhausting kind of day .