nine o’clock
The people of the gambling-house kept their bedstead machinery a secret from _ us _ -- even from the police ! The dead kept the rest of the secret for them . Good-night , or rather good-morning , Monsieur Faulkner ! Be at my office again at nine o'clock ; in the meantime , _ au revoir _ ! '' The rest of my story is soon told . I was examined and reexamined ; the gambling-house was strictly searched all through from top to bottom ; the prisoners were separately interrogated , and two of the less guilty among them made a confession . I discovered that the old soldier was master of the gambling-house -- _ justice _ discovered that he had been drummed out of the army as a vagabond years ago ; that he had been guilty of all sorts of villainies since ; that he was in possession of stolen property , which the owners identified ; and that he , the croupier , another accomplice , and the woman who had made my cup of coffee were all in the secret of the bedstead .