nine o'clock
This paper , or sealed envelope as it proved to be , which evidently contained some inclosure , she seized , and at the sound of approaching footsteps thrust hastily into her own bosom . The sight of two agitated women rushing through the quiet streets at so early an hour in the morning had attracted attention and aroused curiosity , and the story of the murder , having once become known , spread with the customary rapidity of bad news . Very soon a policeman , and a little later a sheriff 's officer , arrived at the house and took charge of the remains to await the arrival of the coroner . By nine o'clock a coroner 's jury had been summoned , who , after brief deliberation , returned a verdict of willful murder at the hands of some person or persons unknown , while engaged in the commission of a burglary . No sooner was the verdict announced than the community , or at least the white third of it , resolved itself spontaneously into a committee of the whole to discover the perpetrator of this dastardly crime , which , at this stage of the affair , seemed merely one of robbery and murder . Suspicion was at once directed toward the negroes , as it always is when an unexplained crime is committed in a Southern community . The suspicion was not entirely an illogical one .