nine o'clock
When his steps had ceased she ran on tiptoe , holding her breath to silence her sobs , through the hall , up the stairs of the silent home to her room , and locked the door . When she could not pray , she lay sobbing and groaning through a long night . The next morning John Barclay gave Robert Hendricks the keys to the bank . Barclay watched the town until nine o'clock and satisfied himself that there would be no run on the bank , for during the early part of the morning young Hendricks was holding a reception in his office ; then Barclay saddled a horse and started for the wheat fields . After the first hours of the morning had passed , and the townspeople had gone from the bank , Robert Hendricks began to burrow into the books . He felt instinctively that he would find there the solution of the puzzle that perplexed him . For he was sure Molly Culpepper had not jilted him wantonly .