half past one in the afternoon
Then he would persuade Stener to let him have a check for the sixty thousand dollars ' worth of city loan he had purchased this morning on ` change . Out of it he could take twenty-five thousand dollars to make up the balance due the bank , and still have thirty-five thousand for himself . The one unfortunate thing about such an arrangement was that by doing it he was building up a rather complicated situation in regard to these same certificates . Since their purchase in the morning , he had not deposited them in the sinking-fund , where they belonged -LRB- they had been delivered to his office by half past one in the afternoon -RRB- , but , on the contrary , had immediately hypothecated them to cover another loan . It was a risky thing to have done , considering that he was in danger of failing and that he was not absolutely sure of being able to take them up in time . But , he reasoned , he had a working agreement with the city treasurer -LRB- illegal of course -RRB- , which would make such a transaction rather plausible , and almost all right , even if he failed , and that was that none of his accounts were supposed necessarily to be put straight until the end of the month . If he failed , and the certificates were not in the sinking-fund , he could say , as was the truth , that he was in the habit of taking his time , and had forgotten .