one o'clock
There was a look in them as cold and deadly -- or I imagined it -- as deliberate murder . I could n't wait until next day to see Eagle and tell him -- I hardly knew what , but _ something _ , to put him on his guard . He had said that he was engaged to lunch with a man named Donaldson at the Hotel Weldon , and it occurred to me that I might reach him there by telephone . At a little before one o'clock , I called up the hotel , and inquired if Captain March had arrived , to keep an appointment with Mr. Donaldson . The answer was `` yes '' ; and when I had given my name , I was asked to hold the line for a few minutes , until Captain March should come to the telephone . As I sat with the receiver at my ear , waiting , somebody began to talk in weird Spanish -- or `` Mex , '' as I 'd heard it nicknamed in El Paso . The telephone and I had never been intimate friends at home , and I 'd practically made its acquaintance since coming to America , so I scarcely realized why or how I was hearing that voice .