five
o'clock
As if repeating something learned by heart , Tryst answered : `` Not guilty , sir . '' And his big hands , at his sides , kept clenching and unclenching . The witnesses , four in number , began now to give their testimony . A sergeant of police recounted how he had been first summoned to the scene of burning , and afterward arrested Tryst ; Sir Gerald 's agent described the eviction and threats uttered by the evicted man ; two persons , a stone-breaker and a tramp , narrated that they had seen him going in the direction of the rick and barn at five o'clock , and coming away therefrom at five-fifteen . Punctuated by the barking of the terrier clerk , all this took time , during which there passed through Felix many thoughts . Here was a man who had done a wicked , because an antisocial , act ; the sort of act no sane person could defend ; an act so barbarous , stupid , and unnatural that the very beasts of the field would turn noses away from it ! How was it , then , that he himself could not feel incensed ?