two in the morning
`` I do n't know that , Mr. Simon , '' gruffly interposed the coachman ; `` it 's a case for a coroner , I 'll be bail ; so here I goes to bring him : let all bide as it is , fellow-sarvents ; murder will out , they say . '' And off he set directly -- not without a shrewd remark from Mr. Jennings , about letting him escape that way ; which seemed all very sage and likely , till the honest man came back within the hour , and a _ posse comitatus _ at his heels . We all know the issue of that inquest . Now , if any one requests to be informed how Jennings came to be looked for as usual in his room , after that unavailing search last night , I reply , this newer , stronger excitement for the minute made the house oblivious of that mystery ; and if people further will persist to know , how that mystery of his absence was afterwards explained -LRB- though I for my part would gladly have said nothing of the bailiff 's own excuse -RRB- , let it be enough to hint , that Jennings winked with a knowing and gallant expression of face ; alluded to his private key , and a secret return at two in the morning from some disreputable society in the neighbourhood ; made the men laugh , and the women blush ; and , altogether , as he might well have other hats and coats , the delicate affair was not unlikely . And so , this crock of gold -- gained through extortion , by the frauds of every day , the meannesses of every hour -- this concrete oppression to the hireling in his wages -- this mass of petty pilferings from poverty -- this continuous obstruction to the charities of wealth -- this cockatrice 's egg -- this offspring of iniquity -- had already been baptized in blood before poor Acton found it , and slain its earthly victim ere it wrecked his faith ; already had it been perfected by crime , and destroyed the murderer 's soul , before it had endangered the life of slandered innocence . Is there yet more blessing in the crock ? more fearful interest still , to carry on its story to an end ?