eleven o'clock
even now -- ten years after -- it is no easy thing to write or tell of those days . It was part of our purpose to go around the garrison and show how other people looked at the matter , but it may be as well to say that , except Blake , Warner , and the surgeon , every officer thought Ray guilty . So , too , did most of the men except over in the band quarters , where there was the excitement that night . It was caused by the snare drummer , a pugnacious young Celt , who burst in upon his comrades at eleven o'clock with a loud defiance of `` doughboy '' justice , and an oath that he know 'd the man as shot Gleason and suspicioned Ray , and he 'd have him at the gallows yet . Reporters and special correspondents had been at the fort interviewing everybody who would talk and , after the manner of their kind , making the dumb speak in a way that would put to the blush the miracles of holy writ . There seemed but one theory among those in authority , -- that Ray was guilty . This was duly heralded to an eager public , and the evening extra and the morning journals in columns of detail had prepared all minds for the culprit 's coming .