four o'clock in
the afternoon
`` Eighty-one miles , rail , '' responded the official , as he took and clipped the ticket of the gentleman with the newspaper ; `` comes shorter by road , seventy-four to seventy-five , '' and he proceeded down the aisle , snapping up tickets on one side or the other , as a hen does grains of corn . Bressant covered his eyes with his hand , and amused himself by performing a little sum in mental arithmetic . The amount of money he had given the conductor represented a distance which it would take a certain length of time -- say four hours -- to traverse . It was now four o'clock in the afternoon , and consequently would be eight before that distance was accomplished . From eight o'clock Saturday night , till twelve o'clock Sunday noon , was sixteen hours , and in sixteen hours he must travel , on foot , and through the snow , seventy-five miles of unknown roads . `` Four and a half miles an hour , and nothing to eat since breakfast , '' said Bressant to himself . He took his hand from his eyes , and passed it down his face to his beard , which he twisted and turned unmercifully .