The entire countryside around the Burdock has been mobilized. By 2:00 in the afternoon, men set out with guns, clubs and dogs, and the police warn the village people to lock their doors and stay inside. Griffin manages to evade his pursuers for a 24-hour period except for one encounter with a middle-aged man (Mr. Wicksteed) who had apparently concerned him. Griffin kills the man by beating him with an iron rod. The narrator constructs a tale about Griffin's whereabouts and actions using his imagination and a few available facts. In his words, the irate Griffin hurts a child on his way out of Kemp's house and hides in the thickets of Hinton dean to scheme again. From mid-noon to two-thirty, he possibly stays there, trying to come to terms with Kemp's betrayal and cursing his luck. Then he sets out, armed with an iron rod for some purpose that cannot be guessed. a harmless man by the name of Wicksteed witnesses the rod moving on its own, ignorant of Griffin's reputation. He follows he rod is violently murdered by Griffin in a gravel pit. Since no one was there but Griffin we'll never know what happened, only that Wicksteed was beaten to death with an iron rod. The narrator is careful to emphases that these are his conjectures - no one can exactly know how the events occurred, or how Griffin came to possess a weapon.