about midnight
He blew out his light , went below , and was soon loafing down the river road with the intent to borrow and use one of Roxy 's devices . He found a canoe and paddled off down-stream , setting the canoe adrift as dawn approached , and making his way by land to the next village , where he kept out of sight till a transient steamer came along , and then took deck passage for St. Louis . He was ill at ease until Dawson 's Landing was behind him ; then he said to himself , `` All the detectives on earth could n't trace me now ; there 's not a vestige of a clue left in the world ; that homicide will take its place with the permanent mysteries , and people wo n't get done trying to guess out the secret of it for fifty years . '' In St. Louis , next morning , he read this brief telegram in the papers -- dated at Dawson 's Landing : Judge Driscoll , an old and respected citizen , was assassinated here about midnight by a profligate Italian nobleman or barber on account of a quarrel growing out of the recent election . The assassin will probably be lynched . `` One of the twins ! '' soliloquized Tom ; `` how lucky !