four o'clock
The controlling central station of the few instruments in existence , from which any instrument could be cut out , changed in tune , or totally destroyed at will , was in Perkins ' office safe . A man intrusted with an unusually important job would receive from an unknown source an instrument , with directions sufficient for its use . As soon as the job was done he would find , upon again attempting to use the telephone , that its interior was so hopelessly wrecked that not even the most skilled artisan could reproduce what it had once been . * * * * * At four o'clock Brookings was ushered into the private office of the master criminal , who was plainly ill at ease . `` I 've got to report another failure , Mr. Brookings . It 's nobody 's fault , just one of those things that could n't be helped . I handled this myself .