midnight
When the waiter brought me the evening paper , the first thing that caught my eye was a circumstantial account of the _ probable _ way the fellow did his murder . I say probable , for they never caught him ; and , as you will see directly , they could only suppose how it occurred . `` It seemed that a well-known Paris banker , who was ascertained beyond doubt to have left one station alive and well , and with a couple of hundred thousand francs in a leathern _ sac _ under his seat , arrived at the next station the train stopped at with his throat cut and _ minus _ all his money , except a few bank-notes to no great amount , which the assassin had been wise enough to leave behind him . The train was a night express on one of the southern lines ; the banker travelled quite alone , in a first-class carriage ; and the murder must have taken place between midnight and 1 A.M. next morning . The newspapers supposed -- rightly enough , I think -- that the murderer must have entered the carriage _ from without _ , stabbed his victim in his sleep -- there were no signs of any struggle -- opened the _ sac _ , taken what he wanted , and retreated , loot and all , by the way he came . I fully indorsed my particular writer 's opinion that the murderer was an uncommonly cool and clever individual , especially as I fancy he got clear off and was never afterward laid hands on . `` When I had done that I thought I had done with the affair altogether .