nine o'clock
My informant , whoever he might be , had vanished into the darkness from which he had come as irrecoverably as had the falling star that had written its brief message across the sky , and gone out again into infinity . I got up very early next morning and drove to Skebawn to see Murray , and offer him my mysterious information for what it was worth . Personally I did not think it worth much , and was disposed to regard it as a red herring drawn across the trail . Murray , however , was not in a mood to despise anything that had a suggestion to make , having been out till nine o'clock the night before without being able to find any clue to the hiding-place of James Foley . `` The river 's a good mile from the place where the fight was , '' he said , straddling his compasses over the Ordnance Survey map , `` and there 's no sort of a road they could have taken him along , but a tip like this is always worth trying . I remember in the Land League time how a man came one Saturday night to my window and told me there were holes drilled in the chapel door to shoot a boycotted man through while he was at mass . The holes were there right enough , and you may be quite sure that chap found excellent reasons for having family prayers at home next day ! ''