five o'clock in the afternoon
It was the mine manager who had stood by the door of the mine when Cracked McGregor went to his death . He lived in a city some thirty miles away , and went there in the evening on the train . With him went the clerks and even the stenographers from the offices of the mine . After five o'clock in the afternoon no white collars were to be seen upon the streets of Coal Creek . In the town men lived like brutes . Dumb with toil they drank greedily in the saloon on Main Street and went home to beat their wives . Among them a constant low muttering went on .