three in the afternoon
The proof against the assistant was almost conclusive , and if Shiraz had burrowed into the heart of the motive , it gave sufficient evidence to deliver over the case almost entire to the man who added the last word to the whole drama before the curtain fell . Coryndon knew the full value of working from point to point , but beside this method he placed his own instinct , and his instinct pointed along a different road , a road that might lead nowhere , and yet it called to him as he sat on the side of his bed , as roads with indefinite endings have called men since the beginning of time . Against his own trained judgment , he wavered and yielded , and at length took his white _ topi _ from a peg on the wall and walked out slowly up the garden . It was three in the afternoon . Just the hour when Shiraz was lying on his mat asleep , and when Leh Shin slept , and Mhtoon Pah drowsed against his cushion from Balsorah , each dreaming after his own fashion ; and it was an hour when white men were sure to be in their bungalows . Hartley was lying in a chair in the veranda , and all through Mangadone men rested from toil and relaxed their brains after the morning 's work . Coryndon went out softly and slowly , and he walked under the hot burning sun that stared down at Mangadone as though trying to stare it steadily into flame .