four o'clock
McTeague resolved to take it with him . He took down the cage , touching it gently with his enormous hands , and tied a couple of sacks about it to shelter the little bird from the sharp night wind . Then he went out , locking all the doors behind him , and turned toward the ferry slips . The boats had ceased running hours ago , but he told himself that by waiting till four o'clock he could get across the bay on the tug that took over the morning papers . * * * * * * * * * * * * * Trina lay unconscious , just as she had fallen under the last of McTeague 's blows , her body twitching with an occasional hiccough that stirred the pool of blood in which she lay face downward . Towards morning she died with a rapid series of hiccoughs that sounded like a piece of clockwork running down . The thing had been done in the cloakroom where the kindergarten children hung their hats and coats .