ten o'clock
By the hundred ! But roosters are extinct ! Tomorrow will be the twenty-first day of this prosecution and not a witness sworn yet . '' However , a poultryman was presently discovered who agreed simply for what advertising there was in it to furnish a crate of white roosters , a hatchet and a headsman 's block , and to have them in the basement of the building promptly at ten o'clock . Accordingly , at that hour Judge Bender convened Part IX of the General Sessions in the court room and then adjourned downstairs , where all the prospective witnesses for the prosecution were lined up in a body and told to raise their right hands . Meantime Clerk McGuire was handed the hatchet , and approached the coop with obvious misgivings . Ah Fong had already given a dubious approval to the sex and quality of the fowls inside and naught remained but to submit the proper oath and remove the head of the unfortunate victim .