six
o'clock
All unknown to him , a selected company of cutthroats were in waiting for him on the hills near the castle . To the amazement of the conspirators , he suddenly retraced his tracks and came back to Edelweiss inside of twenty-four hours , a telegram stopping him at Gushna , a hundred miles down the line . The message was from Dangloss and it was in cipher . A trainman in the service of Marlanx could only say , in explanation , that the American had smiled as he deciphered the dispatch and at once left the carriage with his men to await the up-train at six o'clock . Peter Brutus repeated a message he had just received from Marlanx at Balak . It was to the effect that he had reason to believe that his wife had managed , through an unknown traitor , to send word to the Tower that she was not at Schloss Marlanx , nor in any immediate danger . He felt himself supported in this belief by the obvious fact that no further efforts had been made by Tullis or the police since that day .