2:30 A.M.
She was evidently hiding , as she sat on the ground half screened by a tree ; but my horse shied and plunged badly , and when she rose , the full moon showed her face and figure distinctly . There was something so mysterious in her movements , that I asked her if she had lost her way ; to which she curtly replied that she had not . I learn from Burk , the station agent , that her actions aroused his suspicion , and that instead of leaving town , as she said she intended , by the 7:15 train , she hung about the station , and finally took the 3:05 express this morning . He said she had begged permission to stay in the waiting-room , but that at 2:30 A.M. , when he went back to open the ticket office , she was nowhere to be found ; and that later , he saw her coming down the railroad track . She must have gone back to Elm Bluff after I passed her on the road , and effected an entrance through the window on the front piazza , as it was found open ; and the awful work of robbery and murder was accomplished during the storm , which you know was so frightful that it drowned all minor sounds . This morning when the General did not ring for his hot water at the usual time , it was supposed that he was sleeping late , but finally old Bedney knocked . Unable to arouse his master , he opened the door , and found our old friend lying on the floor , near the fireplace .