About ten o'clock
The spontaneous activity of the whites was accompanied by a visible shrinkage of the colored population . This could not be taken as any indication of guilt , but was merely a recognition of the palpable fact that the American habit of lynching had so whetted the thirst for black blood that a negro suspected of crime had to face at least the possibility of a short shrift and a long rope , not to mention more gruesome horrors , without the intervention of judge or jury . Since to have a black face at such a time was to challenge suspicion , and since there was neither the martyr 's glory nor the saint 's renown in being killed for some one else 's crime , and very little hope of successful resistance in case of an attempt at lynching , it was obviously the part of prudence for those thus marked to seek immunity in a temporary disappearance from public view . About ten o'clock on the morning of the discovery of the murder , Captain McBane and General Belmont , as though moved by a common impulse , found themselves at the office of the Morning Chronicle . Carteret was expecting them , though there had been no appointment made . These three resourceful and energetic minds , representing no organized body , and clothed with no legal authority , had so completely arrogated to themselves the leadership of white public sentiment as to come together instinctively when an event happened which concerned the public , and , as this murder presumably did , involved the matter of race . `` Well , gentlemen , '' demanded McBane impatiently , `` what are we going to do with the scoundrel when we catch him ? ''