nine o'clock
`` Well , that 's the most trying experience I 've had yet , '' he murmured to himself , as he at last dropped into a slow walk to catch his breath . `` Those people are not thieves , but they are next door to it . '' Ralph was so disgusted with the Bowery -- which , in reality , has many nice places of business in it -- that he left the street at the next corner . At nine o'clock he found himself in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Bridge . Here he came across a cheap but neat-looking hotel . He entered and engaged a room for himself alone on the top floor for fifty cents , and soon after retired and slept soundly until morning . The boy was on the streets again long before the time appointed for his next call at Horace Kelsey 's offices .