night, about 8:30
Knowing that the colored teacher was vice-president of the faculty , he saw that he would preside . Belton determined to see that meeting of the faculty if it cost him no end of trouble . He could not afford , under any circumstances , to fail to see that colored man preside over those white men and women . That night , about 8:30 o'clock , when the faculty meeting had progressed about half way , Belton made a rope of his bed clothes and let himself down to the ground from the window of his room on the second floor of the building . About twenty yards distant was the `` mansion , '' in one room of which the teachers held their faculty meetings . The room in which the meeting was held was on the side of the `` mansion '' furthest from the dormitory from which Belton had just come . The `` mansion '' dog was Belton 's friend , and a soft whistle quieted his bark .