ten o'clock
`` Can you help us , Sir Charles ! Can you see light ? '' `` You must tell me the details of the Major 's disappearance , '' said Sir Charles , and the following details were given . On the eleventh of December and at ten o'clock of the evening Major Lashley left the house to visit the stables which were situated in the Park and at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the house . A favourite mare , which he had hunted the day before , had gone lame , and all day Major Lashley had shown some anxiety ; so that there was a natural reason why he should have gone out at the last moment before retiring to bed . Mrs. Lashley went up to her room at the same time , indeed with so exact a correspondence of movement that as she reached the polished tulip-wood landing at the top of the stairs , she heard the front door latch as her husband drew it to behind him . That was the last she heard of him .