ten o'clock
Messrs. Bolt and Little were rattened again , and never knew it till morning . This time it was not the bands , but certain axle-nuts and screws that vanished . The obnoxious machines came to a standstill , and Bolt fumed and cursed . However , at ten o'clock , he and the foreman were invited to the Town hall , and there they found the missing gear , and the culprit , one of the very workmen employed at high wages on the obnoxious machines . Ransome had bored a small hole in the ceiling , by means of which this room was watched from above ; the man was observed , followed , and nabbed . The property found on him was identified and the magistrate offered the prisoner a jury , which he declined ; then the magistrate dealt with the case summarily , refused to recognize rattening , called the offense `` petty larceny , '' and gave the man six months ' prison . Now as Ransome , for obvious reasons , concealed the means by which this man had been detected , a conviction so mysterious shook that sense of security which ratteners had enjoyed for many years , and the trades began to find that craft had entered the lists with craft .