The excerpt that tells the White family's uncertainty on the Major's story would be when Mr. White said:
"If the tale about the monkey's paw is not more truthful than those he has been telling us," said Herbert, as the door closed behind their guest, just in time to catch the last train, "we shan't make much out of it." This is because they are not sure what is true about the information that a stranger told them in the train.
One for an author to manipulate time in a passage is by Using Flashback to manipulate time.
With flashback, the author could manipulate thee flow of the story, revealing what happen in different timeline to create one connecting story line
hope this helps<span />
