eleven o'clock before
For three weeks past , as the miller testified -- a respectable man named Floyd -- his mill had not been deserted ; some one , man , boy , or woman , had always been there . On this afternoon it was closed , mill and cottage too , and all were away . What might have been simply a slight accident , had help been at hand , had terminated in an awful death for the want of it . It was eleven o'clock before anything like order was restored at Hartledon , and the house left in quiet . The last person to quit it was Dr. Ashton . Hedges , the butler , had been showing him out , and was standing for a minute on the steps looking after him , and perhaps to cool , with a little fresh air , his perplexed brow -- for the man was a faithful retainer , and the affair had shocked him in no common degree -- when he was accosted by Pike , who emerged stealthily from behind one of the outer pillars , where he seemed to have been sheltering . `` Why , what have you been doing there ? ''