eleven o'clock
For perhaps ten minutes he was busy at something under the stairway . He then silently emerged and locked the door . The people of Clarksville and that vicinity are given to retiring early . Had they been abroad , or even awake , as late as eleven o'clock that night , they might have seen a startling spectacle in the distance -- that of a mass of ruthless , hungry flames devouring a little white dwelling ; leaping up in their fierce ecstacy to the heavens , and painting the sky all about a lurid , smoky crimson . Checkers sat perched upon the fence some distance off . One heel was caught upon the first rail below him . His elbow rested upon his knee , and his upturned palm supported his chin .