one o'clock
`` I 'll send a couple of men along with you . It is n't far across the line , an ' there wo n't be no trouble in getting back without nobody knowin ' anything about it -- if you get him . '' `` All right , '' said Flannagan , his visions of five hundred already dwindled to a possible one . It was but a little past one o'clock that a touring car rolled south out of Kansas City with Detective Sergeant Flannagan in the front seat with the driver and two burly representatives of Missouri law in the back . WHEN the two tramps approached the farmhouse at which Billy had purchased food a few hours before the farmer 's wife called the dog that was asleep in the summer kitchen and took a shotgun down from its hook beside the door . From long experience the lady was a reader of character -- of hobo character at least -- and she saw nothing in the appearance of either of these two that inspired even a modicum of confidence . Now the young fellow who had been there earlier in the day and who , wonder of wonders , had actually paid for the food she gave him , had been of a different stamp .