twenty
minutes after eight
gasped Conklin . North shook hands with Brockett and walked toward the door ; but as he neared it , Brockett stepped in front of him and threw it open . As North passed out into the graveled yard , out into the full light of the warm spring day , the sheriff mechanically looked at his watch . It was twenty minutes after eight . From her window Elizabeth saw the gray dawn which ushered in that June day steal over the valley below Idle Hour . Swiftly out of the darkness of the long night grew the accustomed shape of things . Wooded pastures and plowed fields came mysteriously into existence as the light spread , then the sun burst through the curtain of mist which lay along the eastern horizon , and it was day -- the day of _ his _ death .