two o’clock in the morning
`` Not yet , Monsieur le Ministre ; but he can not escape , and it is merely an affair of a few hours . '' Then the Chief of the Detective Force told the whole story : how Detective Mondesir , on being warned by a secret agent that the Anarchist Salvat was in a tavern at Montmartre , had reached it just as the bird had flown ; then how chance had again set him in presence of Salvat at a hundred paces or so from the tavern , the rascal having foolishly loitered there to watch the establishment ; and afterwards how Salvat had been stealthily shadowed in the hope that they might catch him in his hiding-place with his accomplices . And , in this wise , he had been tracked to the Porte-Maillot , where , realising , no doubt , that he was pursued , he had suddenly bolted into the Bois de Boulogne . It was there that he had been hiding since two o'clock in the morning in the drizzle which had not ceased to fall . They had waited for daylight in order to organise a _ battue _ and hunt him down like some animal , whose weariness must necessarily ensure capture . And so , from one moment to another , he would be caught . `` I know the great interest you take in the arrest , Monsieur le Ministre , '' added Gascogne , `` and it occurred to me to ask your orders .