midnight
Ned lived on good terms with everybody . Who , then , could have killed him ? Of course , every finger pointed to Paul -- the long feud , the repeated quarrels , the injuries which Wilson had often done to him , the blow on his head on the very night of the murder , and Paul 's threat . Then , again , there was his refusal to give an account of his actions between midnight and six in the morning -- and , last of all , the knife acknowledged to be the property of Paul , with which the deed was done . The chain seemed complete ; there did not appear to be a loophole anyhow , and yet she was certain Paul had never committed the deed . Was it likely that a clever man such as he , even if he had wanted to commit murder , would have used such brutal means ? Would he have left behind him the knife which must inevitably be traced to him ?