five
o'clock
This would never do : socks cost money , and their absence meant sore feet and weariness ; so he told the Major and Gertie to walk on slowly while he went back . He would catch them up , he said , before they had gone half a mile . He hid his bundle under a hedge -- every pound of weight made a difference at the end of a day 's work -- and set off . It was just at that moment between day and night -- between four and five o'clock -- as he came back into the yard . He went straight through the open gates , glancing about , to explain matters to the farmer if necessary , but , not seeing him , went up the rickety stairs , groped his way across to the window , took down his socks from the nail an which he had hung them last night , and came down again . As he came into the yard , he thought he heard something stirring within the open door of the stable on his right , and thinking it to be the farmer , and that an explanation would be advisable , looked in . At first he saw nothing , though he could hear a horse moving about in the loose-box in the corner .