three a.m.
`` But she had sailed , and the dock which had held her was empty . `` This discovery did not daunt me , for I had expected it . I should have been surprised if she had been at her berth ; and the fact that she had weighed under cover of night fell in so well with my anticipation that I waited only to ascertain officially what ships had left Spezia during the past twenty-four hours . They told me at the Customs that the Brazilian war-vessel built by Signor Vezzia weighed at three a.m. ; but more I could not learn , for these men had evidently been well bribed , and were as dumb as unfee 'd lawyers . I knew that their information was not worth a groat , and hurried back to the Albergo to assure myself that my neighbour with the necklace had sailed also . To my surprise , he was at breakfast when I arrived at the hotel ; and so one great link in my theoretic chain snapped at the first test . As he had not sailed with the others , he could have no direct connection with the nameless ship , no nautical part or lot with her .