six o'clock
Presently the cluck , cluck of the sabots was heard again , and old Jeanne slowly approached him from behind . She said something in her toothless , mumbling way , and held out a crumpled bit of paper in her shaking hand . He opened it and read , scrawled as if in haste , in ill-spelt Breton : `` I go to a baptism at St. Jean-du-Pied , and can not return before sun-down . Meet me at the cross on the hill-side at six o'clock , as I fear to pass through the valley alone in the dark . Marie . '' As he studied the writing , the old woman 's mumblings became more articulate . She was saying , '' 'T was the child Conan should have brought it an hour ago .