"Watches of the Night" is a short story by Rudyard Kipling that was first published in the Civil and Military Gazette on March 25, 1887; in book form, first in the first Indian edition of Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888; and in the many subsequent editions of that collection.
It is one of the "Tales" which deals with the tense, enclosed society of the British in India, and the levels of gossip and malice that could be engendered therein.
Later that night, as Platte returns home, his horse rears and upsets his cart, throwing him to the ground outside Mrs Larkyn's house, where his watch falls loose.
Going home in a hired carriage, the Colonel finds the driver drunk, and returns late.
In the morning, Mrs Larkyn, who has been a victim of the Colonel's wife scandal-mongering, finds the watch that Platte has dropped, and shows it to him.