about midnight
`` Too bad . Ca n't you go uptown and ` phone out to the stockyards ? Or if you want to take a street-car out there you 'll have time to hop one at Stout Street . Last one goes about midnight . '' In those days the telephone was not a universal necessity . Dave had never used one and did not know how to get his connection . He spent several minutes ringing up , shouting at the operator , and trying to understand what she told him .