about midnight
The apparent intimacy which had sprung up between twenty-five-dollar Smith and the reserved , almost hermit-like Banneker was the subject of curious and amused commentary in The Ledger office . Mallory hazarded a humorous guess that Banneker was tutoring Smith in the finer arts of journalism , which was not so far amiss as its proponent might have supposed . The Great Heat broke several evenings later in a drench of rain and wind . This , being in itself important news , kept Banneker late at his writing , and he had told his host not to wait , that he would join him on the yacht sometime about midnight . So Smith had gone on alone . The next morning Tommy Burt , lounging into the office from an early assignment , approached the City Desk with a twinkle far back in his lively eyes . `` Hear anything of a shoot-fest up in the Bad Lands last night ? ''