six o’clock
One morning , two years ago , Cutter went into the hardware store and bought a pistol , saying he was going to shoot a dog , and adding that he `` thought he would take a shot at an old cat while he was about it . '' -LRB- Here the children interrupted Rudolph 's narrative by smothered giggles . -RRB- Cutter went out behind the hardware store , put up a target , practiced for an hour or so , and then went home . At six o'clock that evening , when several men were passing the Cutter house on their way home to supper , they heard a pistol shot . They paused and were looking doubtfully at one another , when another shot came crashing through an upstairs window . They ran into the house and found Wick Cutter lying on a sofa in his upstairs bedroom , with his throat torn open , bleeding on a roll of sheets he had placed beside his head . `` Walk in , gentlemen , '' he said weakly .