twelve o’clock
The whole of this course had been in the direction of Budmouth . On they went , and the next clue was furnished them by a shepherd . He said that wherever a clear space three or four yards wide ran in a line through a flock of sheep lying about a ewe-lease , it was a proof that somebody had passed there not more than half-an-hour earlier . At twelve o'clock that day he had noticed such a feature in his flock . Nothing more could be heard of him , and they got into Budmouth . The steam-packet to the Channel Islands was to start at eleven last night , and they at once concluded that his hope was to get to France by way of Jersey and St. Malo -- his only chance , all the railway-stations being watched . ` Well , they went to the boat : he was not on board then .