nine o'clock in the morning
There seemed a conspicuous dearth of Wobbleses on the east loggia that morning . Loring , pathetically faithful to his post , entertained them in relays as Johnny brought them up : sometimes one , sometimes two , and once or twice as many as three of them at one time ; but they all lost their feeble mooring and drifted away . Luncheon-time passed ; Washer and Bouncer and Close and Courtney went into executive session ; two o'clock came , three o'clock , four o'clock , and still no meeting . At the latter hour Johnny , making his tireless rounds but afflicted with despair , located Billy Wobbles , the one with the jerky eyelids and impulsive knees , on the loggia with Loring ; Eugene was in the poker room trying numbly to discover the difference between a four-flush and a deuce-high hand ; Tommy , his toupee well down toward his scanty white eyebrows , was boring the Courtney girls to the verge of tears ; Cecil , stumbling almost rhythmically over his own calves , was playing tennis with Winnie and Sammy and Mrs. Follison ; and Reggie , the twitcher , was entertaining Val Russel and Bruce Townley with a story he had started at nine o'clock in the morning . Suddenly Johnny was visited with a long-sought inspiration and hurried down to the kennels , remembering with much self-scorn that he had dragged each of the Wobbleses away from there at least once . The master of the dogs was Irish and young , with eyes the color of a six-o'clock sky on a sunny day , and he greeted Johnny with a white-toothed smile that would have melted honey . `` I locked Beauty up , sir , '' he said with a touch of his cap , referring to the gentle collie that had poked its nose confidingly into Johnny 's hand at every visit .