midnight
The return journey of the rescuers and the rescued was a happy one indeed . If fraternity had prevailed on the outward voyage , now far more were all -LRB- or most -RRB- hearts knit together . What happy greetings were exchanged , what stories related , what mysteries made clear ! The happy press were told the tale of each captured delegate ; they learnt of the pursuit after vice of the two public-spirited ladies , and their consequent entrapment , of the decoy of Lord John Lester through his devotion to the Union of the League , of how Professor Inglis had been betrayed through his pity for the poor Greek woman , of how Dr. Chang , leaving the Bergues hotel at midnight , had taken a walk through the Saint Gervais quarter , and been led by the smell of opium to investigate a mysterious opium den whose floor had failed beneath his feet and dropped him into an underground passage , along which he had been conducted to an exit close to the Seujet Wharf , hustled into a covered boat , and carried up the lake . Many such strange tales the released captives told , and the journalists took down breathlessly on their writing-pads . Geneva , one perceived , must be full of the paid agents of the ex-cardinal and the society which employed him . Not that Dr. Franchi had told his captives anything of this society ; he had merely said that he was anxious for good company , and had therefore taken the liberty of capturing the pick of the eminent persons present at Geneva and entertaining them as his guests .