noon
`` If your guess is right , it 's like looking for the traditional needle in the haystack . '' `` Ump , '' said Broffin ; and for a good hour after the reporter had gone he sat slowly swinging in the creaking office chair , smoking pipe after pipe and thinking . At the end of the reflective revery he closed his desk , locked his office , and went once more to the bank . It was the hour of the noon lull , and Johnson , the paying teller , was free to talk . `` I hope I 'll get through bothering you , some day , Mr. Johnson , '' Broffin began . `` But when I get stuck , I have to come to you . What Mr. Galbraith do n't remember would crowd a dictionary . ''