noon
The precious pair of them had melted from the room unseen , unheard , what time every eye doted on handsome Hilda Bouverie , and every ear on the simple words and moving cadences of `` Home , Sweet Home . '' Ted Radford was the first to see it ; for by the end of the brief song he had his revolver uncovered and cocked at last , and no quarry left for him to shoot . With a bound he was on the platform ; another carried him into the canvas anteroom , a third and a fourth out into the moonlight . It was as bright as noon in a conservatory of smoked glass . And in the tinted brightness one man was already galloping away ; but it was Stingaree who danced with one foot only in the stirrup of a milk-white mare . Radford rushed up to him and fired point-blank again and again . A series of metallic clicks was all the harm he did , for Stingaree was in the saddle before the hurled revolver struck the mare on the ribs , and sent the pair flying through the moonlight with a shout of laughter , a cloud of sand , and a dull volley of thunderous hoofs .