twelve o'clock
`` Thank you . '' Then he came back and made the announcement that there was a little delay ; but that Dr. Holcomb would be there shortly . But he was not . At twelve o'clock there were still some people waiting . At one o'clock the last man had slipped out of the room -- and wondered . In all the country there was but one person who knew . That one was an obscure man who had yielded to a detective 's intuition and had fallen inadvertently upon one of the greatest mysteries of modern times .