About nine o'clock
I suppose he was passing the time , for he looked at his watch now and then , and when I did once get a look at us face it made me -- er -- uncomfortable . He could have crushed me like a fly , sir . '' I had brought Mr. Hotchkiss a glass of wine , and he was looking better . He stopped to finish it , declining with a wave of his hand to have it refilled , and continued : `` About nine o'clock or a little later he got off somewhere near Washington Circle . He went along one of the residence streets there , turned to his left a square or two , and rang a bell . He had been admitted when I got there , but I guessed from the appearance of the place that it was a boarding-house . `` I waited a few minutes and rang the bell .