ten o'clock in the evening
The horseman was well and favorably known in all directions . He was eagerly cornered wheresoever he appeared by a lot of fellows who were friends to little purpose , in an actual test . However , he clung to his mission with commendable tenacity of purpose , and kept upon his way . Thus he discovered at length , when he visited the bank -- an institution that rarely closed before ten o'clock in the evening -- that Kent had been gone for the past two weeks , no one knew where , but somewhere out south , with a party . There was nothing to do after that but to look for fit apartments for the gently reared girl and her maid . Hunting a needle in the ocean would have been a somewhat similar task . Van went at once at the business , with his customary spirit .