Midnight
Among them were two younger men -- Ralph Merriam , a broker , and Wade , his friend . Two deep-sea cabmen were chartered . At Columbus Circle they hove to long enough to revile the statue of the great navigator , unpatriotically rebuking him for having voyaged in search of land instead of liquids . Midnight overtook the party marooned in the rear of a cheap café far uptown . Hedges was arrogant , overriding and quarrelsome . He was burly and tough , iron-gray but vigorous , `` good '' for the rest of the night . There was a dispute -- about nothing that matters -- and the five-fingered words were passed -- the words that represent the glove cast into the lists .