two
o'clock
Then the three set the ladder against the tree , and Puglioni went up with his sword in his right hand , and at the top of it he reached up and began to hack at the neck below the iron collar . Presently , the bones and the old coat and the soul of Tom fell down with a rattle , and a moment afterwards his head that had watched so long alone swung clear from the swinging chain . These things Will and Joe gathered up , and Puglioni came running down his ladder , and they heaped upon its rungs the terrible remains of their friend , and hastened away wet through with the rain , with the fear of phantoms in their hearts and horror lying before them on the ladder . By two o'clock they were down again in the valley out of the bitter wind , but they went on past the open grave into the graveyard all among the tombs , with their lantern and their ladder and the terrible thing upon it , which kept their friendship still . Then these three , that had robbed the Law of its due and proper victim , still sinned on for what was still their friend , and levered out the marble slabs from the sacred sepulchre of Paul , Archbishop of Alois and Vayence . And from it they took the very bones of the Archbishop himself , and carried them away to the eager grave that they had left , and put them in and shovelled back the earth . But all that lay on the ladder they placed , with a few tears , within the great white sepulchre under the Cross of Christ , and put back the marble slabs .