four o’clock
`` Then will you explain to me -- '' `` It is useless . I confess everything in a lump , everything and even ten times more than you know nothing about . '' Wearied by his fruitless task , the judge had suspended his examinations , but he resumed them after the two intercepted messages were brought to his attention ; and regularly , at mid-day , Arsène Lupin was taken from the prison to the Dépôt in the prison-van with a certain number of other prisoners . They returned about three or four o'clock . Now , one afternoon , this return trip was made under unusual conditions . The other prisoners not having been examined , it was decided to take back Arsène Lupin first , thus he found himself alone in the vehicle . These prison-vans , vulgarly called `` panniers à salade '' -- or salad-baskets -- are divided lengthwise by a central corridor from which open ten compartments , five on either side .