midnight
Lanyard uttered a strangled `` Sorry ! '' and hung up , abandoning further effort as hopeless . That matter would have to stand over till morning . Time now pressed : it was nearly eleven ; he had a rendezvous with Destiny to keep at midnight , and meant to be more than punctual . Walking to his apartment house , he proceeded to establish an alibi by entering through the public hallway and registering with the telephone attendant a call for seven o'clock the next morning . In the course of the next half hour Lanyard let himself quietly out of the private door , slipped around the block and boarded a Riverside Drive bus . Alighting at Ninety-third Street , he walked two blocks north on the Drive , turned east , and without misadventure admitted himself a second time to the Stanistreet garden .