twenty minutes past two
He had armed himself with an offensive weapon for the fatal night , and he had gone off early in the morning , after making preparations for departure . He had been found with traces of blood on him ; truly , they might have been wholly caused as he represented , but they might not , also . On a search-warrant being issued for the examination of his room , clothes , and so forth , it was discovered that he had destroyed all his papers , and rearranged all his possessions , on the very afternoon of the disappearance . The watch found at the Weir was challenged by the jeweller as one he had wound and set for Edwin Drood , at twenty minutes past two on that same afternoon ; and it had run down , before being cast into the water ; and it was the jeweller 's positive opinion that it had never been re-wound . This would justify the hypothesis that the watch was taken from him not long after he left Mr. Jasper 's house at midnight , in company with the last person seen with him , and that it had been thrown away after being retained some hours . Why thrown away ? If he had been murdered , and so artfully disfigured , or concealed , or both , as that the murderer hoped identification to be impossible , except from something that he wore , assuredly the murderer would seek to remove from the body the most lasting , the best known , and the most easily recognisable , things upon it .