eight o'clock
Natt had not gone half-way to the station when he almost leaped out of the trap at the sudden advent of an original thought : The trap had been driven out before ! He had not covered a mile more before that thought had annexed another : And along this road , too ! After this the sequence of ideas was swift . In less than half a league , Natt had realized that Paul Ritson himself had driven the mare to the station in order that he might be there to come home at eight o'clock , and thus complete the deception which he had practiced on gullible and slow-witted persons . But in his satisfaction at this explanation Natt overlooked the trifling difficulty of how the trap had been got home again . Driving up into the station , he was greeted by a flyman waiting for hire . `` Bad on the laal mare , ma man -- two sec journeys in ya half day .