three
o'clock
`` The time would be long enough if Gaston were the headquarters of the company , your Honor . But in such a grave and important charge as this amended petition brings , our general counsel should appear in person , and -- '' `` You are the company 's attorney , Mr. Hunnicott , '' said the judge , dryly ; `` and you have hitherto been deemed competent to conduct the case in behalf of the defendant . I am unwilling to work a hardship to any one , but I can not entertain your protest . The preliminary hearing will be at three o'clock to-morrow . '' Hunnicott knew when he was definitely at the string 's end ; and when he was out of the judge 's room and the Court House , he made a dash for his office , dry-lipped and panting . Ten minutes sufficed for the writing of a telegram to Kent , and he was half-way down to the station with it when it occurred to him that it would never do to trust the incendiary thing to the wires in plain English . There was a little-used cipher code in his desk provided for just such emergencies , and back he went to labor sweating over the task of securing secrecy at the expense of the precious minutes of time .