eight at night
The paragraphs told me the whole story of the crime , as far as it was known to the world , from the very beginning . First of all , in the papers , came the bald announcement that a murder had been committed in a country town in Staffordshire ; and that the victim was Mr. Vivian Callingham , a gentleman of means , residing in his own house , The Grange , at Woodbury . Mr. Callingham was the inventor of the acmegraphic process . The servants , said the telegram to the London papers , had heard the sound of a pistol-shot , about half-past eight at night , coming from the direction of Mr. Callingham 's library . Aroused by the report , they rushed hastily to the spot , and broke open the door , which was locked from within . As they did so , a horrible sight met their astonished eyes . Mr. Callingham 's dead body lay extended on the ground , shot right through the heart , and weltering in its life-blood .