five minutes to eight
`` Well , he 's got sporting blood , and he 'll need to keep it at fever heat if he expects to live . I 'm frozen so that I ca n't bend my fingers . '' Van Bibber smiled , and moved comfortably in the big chair ; he had dozed a little , and was feeling very contented . At half-past seven he began to dress , and at five minutes to eight he was ready for dinner and stood looking out of the window at the moonlight on the white lawn below . The snow had stopped falling , and everything lay quiet and still as though it were cut in marble . And then suddenly , across the lawn , came a black , bedraggled object on four legs , limping painfully , and lifting its feet as though there were lead on them . `` Great heavens ! ''