two o'clock in the morning
No need of the as yet undreamed-of telegraph ; the tale flew from man to man , from group to group , from house to house , with little less than telegraphic speed . Of course the schoolmaster gave holiday for that afternoon ; the town would have thought strangely of him if he had not . A gory knife had been found close to the murdered man , and it had been recognized by somebody as belonging to Muff Potter -- so the story ran . And it was said that a belated citizen had come upon Potter washing himself in the `` branch '' about one or two o'clock in the morning , and that Potter had at once sneaked off -- suspicious circumstances , especially the washing which was not a habit with Potter . It was also said that the town had been ransacked for this `` murderer '' -LRB- the public are not slow in the matter of sifting evidence and arriving at a verdict -RRB- , but that he could not be found . Horsemen had departed down all the roads in every direction , and the Sheriff `` was confident '' that he would be captured before night . All the town was drifting toward the graveyard .