midnight
`` To prosecute him in court would create a terrible scandal ! I would rather pay for the stolen things out of my own pocket ! '' Reff Ritter had indeed run away . By some means unknown he managed to get to a town at the end of the lake and there boarded a midnight train bound West . He was traced as far as Chicago , but that was the last seen or heard of him until many years later , when it was learned that he had gone to Alaska with some gold miners . He got very little gold for a large amount of hard work , and drifted from place to place , picking up odd jobs that offered themselves . The announcement that Ritter was the fellow who had perpetrated the many thefts at Putnam Hall created strong excitement in the school .