a quarter after nine
The two malefactors who were , he felt absolutely certain , using his roof for their lustful assignation , had the night before them . They would avail themselves of it with that sybarite deliberateness which had characterized their epicurean guile and deceit from the beginning . He consulted his watch . He judged that a quarter after nine , or perhaps nine-thirty , would be about the psychological time for his entry upon the scene , with his contribution of an unforeseen climax to the drama . It was not yet seven , and it would be as well to wait here while the storm , which made the old ice-house tremble about his head , rode out its initial fury . His judgment proved good for before it was necessary to start , the main violence of wind and rain had abated into gusts and desultory showers . Along the way he encountered evidences of its force , in fallen branches and broken trees ; and in one place , as he crossed a road , he ran into a hanging strand of telephone wire pulled down by broken timber .