midnight
`` Undertakin ' is a comical business ; what is it ? '' `` When an undertaker 's sick ought he to go to the doctor what gives him the most work or the least ? '' `` You got me ; I 'll think it over and let you know . '' In spite of his garrulous complaints the grave-digger was at work in a new grave on the sagebrush flat a mile or more from town when the undertaker and the liveryman drove up at midnight with all that remained of Billy Duncan jolting in the box of a lumber wagon . The coffin of unplaned lumber was unloaded at the grave and the liveryman hastened away , for he himself had no liking for these nocturnal drives , but neither was he the man to quarrel with his own interests . If the Health Officer and His Honor , the mayor , asked no questions when the hospital deaths went unreported , he felt that these frequent midnight pilgrimages were no concern of his . The undertaker peered into the shallow grave .