a quarter to seven
Now , what are the facts ? When Mrs. Drabdump and Mr. Grodman found the body it was yet warm , and Mr. Grodman , a witness fortunately qualified by special experience , states that death had been quite recent . This tallies closely enough with the view of Dr. Robinson , who , examining the body about an hour later , put the time of death at two or three hours before , say seven o'clock . Mrs. Drabdump had attempted to wake the deceased at a quarter to seven , which would put back the act to a little earlier . As I understand from Dr. Robinson , that it is impossible to fix the time very precisely , death may have very well taken place several hours before Mrs. Drabdump 's first attempt to wake deceased . Of course , it may have taken place between the first and second calls , as he may merely have been sound asleep at first ; it may also not impossibly have taken place considerably earlier than the first call , for all the physical data seem to prove . Nevertheless , on the whole , I think we shall be least likely to err if we assume the time of death to be half-past six .