eight o'clock
The Tescherons spent their summers at the quiet village of Stukeville , where they had a comfortable country house ; it was not pretentious , but it was beautifully situated on a knoll , overlooking the neighboring lake , and from the broad verandas a glimpse of the distant , more densely inhabited portion of the town might be obtained . But it was not possible to fly to Stukeville , because that is situated in New York . He had once stopped at a hotel in Hoboken overnight , before taking one of the German steamers for France . He knew the place , and he would have his family there before eight o'clock that morning . He informed Smith that he would stop with his family in the Stuffer House , Hoboken , N. J. , just beyond the jurisdiction of the subpoena servers of the New York coroners , and he accordingly hastened home to move in the early morning , his wife , daughter , one servant and enough of their belongings to supply the apartments of the Stuffer House with a few of the cosy comforts of a soft-cushioned and warm-slippered home . Now , I meant no harm to anybody , and certainly not to the innocent women of the Tescheron family , when I airily lied about the coroner . At the other end of the line the joke exploded , and not long after I had touched the fuse with my last telegram .