five o'clock
`` We should have had to wait till they had caught you . But nobody conceived that to be possible . The President of a republic never runs away in his own person . There will be a cup of tea in the officers ' mess-room at five o'clock . I will leave you till then , as you may wish to employ yourself . '' I went up immediately afterwards on deck , and looking back over the tafferel , could only just see the glittering spires of Gladstonopolis in the distance . Now was the time for thought .