four o'clock
Ruby Noakes and old Joey attended to a few of the many preparations that were being hurried through with such nervous haste . All through the long afternoon Mary Braddock lived under the most intense strain of suspense and apprehension . Uppermost in her mind was the question : had he succeeded in eluding the watchers who were on his trail ? At four o'clock she went to her father , prepared to tell him all that had transpired during the past thirty-six hours . She held nothing back from the old man , not even Braddock 's gruesome design . They were closeted together for more than an hour . That which passed between father and daughter went no farther than the walls of the secluded little room that he called his study .