two o'clock
The first thing on reaching home was to go in search of the chaplain . As a devoted friend of Mr. Davies he should be informed of this odd freak of Mira 's , and , if there were any grounds for their fears , there was still time to avert what would bring such awful scandal about their social circle . They assumed that they were coming back with sensational news , forgetful of the fact that garrison servants helped pack Mira 's trunk , and garrison eyes had seen it start with her for town . The chaplain 's wife knew all about it before two o'clock , and the chaplain would have known it , too , had he not been long miles away at the death-bed of an old soldier turned cow-boy . Not until after the east-bound train was whistling far down the valley and the dawn was in the sky did an inkling reach him . Somebody said he thought the least Mr. Willett could have done was to come over and see how his best `` puncher '' was getting on , and somebody else replied , in low tone , that any one could see Willett had no thoughts for anything or anybody outside of Fort Scott , whereupon somebody Number 1 replied that Willett had been at his `` shack '' most of the afternoon , packing some things and burning others , and had taken the midnight train at Duncan Switch , ten miles west of Braska . And even while the news of his going was bringing strange comfort to the good old man , who rejoiced that this wolf in the sheepfold was even temporarily out of the way , there came a messenger from the distant post and a packet was handed in for him .