seventeen minutes to twelve
* * * * * Hours and hours passed . Suddenly , in the middle of the night , he gave a start . He took out his watch . By the light of his electric lamp he saw that it was seventeen minutes to twelve . `` So at seventeen minutes to twelve at night , '' he said , `` I fathomed the mystery . '' He tried to control his emotion , but it was too great ; and his nerves were so immensely staggered by the trial that he began to shed tears . He had caught sight of the appalling truth , all of a sudden , as when at night one half sees a landscape under a lightning-flash .