six
o’clock
`` On Monday Mrs. Inglethorp will take the last dose of her medicine . On Monday , therefore , at six o'clock , Alfred Inglethorp arranges to be seen by a number of people at a spot far removed from the village . Miss Howard has previously made up a cock and bull story about him and Mrs. Raikes to account for his holding his tongue afterwards . At six o'clock , Miss Howard , disguised as Alfred Inglethorp , enters the chemist 's shop , with her story about a dog , obtains the strychnine , and writes the name of Alfred Inglethorp in John 's handwriting , which she had previously studied carefully . `` But , as it will never do if John , too , can prove an alibi , she writes him an anonymous note -- still copying his hand-writing -- which takes him to a remote spot where it is exceedingly unlikely that anyone will see him . `` So far , all goes well . Miss Howard goes back to Middlingham .