half past ten o'clock
`` Oh ! '' `` And if you do n't open the door at once , I 'll raise the whole neighborhood -- and then go to the other hotel . '' When I said that , I supposed Greenton was a village with a population of at least three or four thousand and was wondering vaguely at the absence of lights and other signs of human habitation . Surely , I thought , all the people can not be abed and asleep at half past ten o'clock : perhaps I am in the business section of the town , among the shops . `` You jest wait , '' said the voice above . This request was not devoid of a certain accent of menace , and I braced myself for a sortie on the part of the besieged , if he had any such hostile intent . Presently a door opened at the very place where I least expected a door , at the farther end of the building , in fact , and a man in his shirtsleeves , shielding a candle with his left hand , appeared on the threshold .