eight in the evening
And again the third time this was done : and there were people who had been at each of the inns to speak to it : and those at the third inn said that the woman looked as though Satan himself had taken his place by her -- so full of helplessness and horror was she ; while the man smiled under alert bright eyes that would not leave her face , except now and again for a swift watchful glance round the room . For he was now hunter and hunted both ; yet , like a dog that will be slain rather than loose his hold , he chose to risk his own life , if by that he might not lose sight of the unhappy woman . Two lives had been spent already in the quest : a third was nought to him ; and the woman 's air and clutching of her pocket had set an idea afloat in his brain . The vessel was to sail at six the next morning ; and it was eight in the evening when the man sat down opposite the woman in the third inn they visited -- it was no better than a drinking shop near the quays . For half an hour they sat , and there was that in their air that made them observed . Suddenly the man crossed over to the woman and whispered in her ear . She started , crying low yet audibly , `` You lie ! ''