noon
Since they always returned with empty hands , he could not believe that they were out for further loot . Also they moved with more confidence than they had shown the day before . That confidence led Raf to climb above them so that he could watch them with less chance of being seen in return . It had been almost noon when they had at last come into this section . If two of them had not remained idling on the street as the long moments crept by , he would have believed that they had given him the slip , that he was now a cat watching a deserted mouse hole . But at the moment they were coming back , carrying something . Raf leaned as far over the parapet as he dared , trying to catch a better look at the flat , boxlike object two of them had deposited on the pavement .