about four o'clock in the morning
My father had placed an iron chest in a secure niche in the dining-room , behind the great central mirror , made for the purpose of concealing it , and to which he alone had access . Here he had kept a store of plate , money , jewels , and papers , so as to defy all burglarious interference or foreign scrutiny , and , in dying , had bequeathed the secret of the patent lock to Mr. Bainrothe alone . Old Morton even was ignorant of the contrivance . I knew of the niche and the iron chest by the merest accident , and had been requested , nay , commanded , by my father , not to speak of either ; so , in silence the mystery had almost died out of my recollection , when it was rather singularly revived again in this wise : During one of the hottest nights early in September , after our return from Saratoga , I descended , parched with thirst , to the dining-room , about four o'clock in the morning , to seek a glass of iced-water , always to be found there , I knew , by night or day , on the sideboard , in a small silver cistern . The dawn was dimly breaking through the great window in the hall as I passed down the broad stairway , still in my night-dress and unslippered feet ; but , on approaching the dining-room , I was surprised to see the gleam of a candle falling athwart the mirror , which had been swung from its place -LRB- as I had seen it once before swung by my father -RRB- , so as to screen my advancing form from the person evidently at work behind it . The massive shutters of the room were closed and securely barred , as was the habit of the house , and the room was , consequently , still in darkness , or deep shadow . As I stood half hidden now , by the arch of the hall , behind which I shrank instinctively , and uncertain how to proceed , I saw Mr. Bainrothe suddenly emerge from behind the mirror , and take from the table near it a canvas bag , small but evidently weighty , from the manner in which he carried it to its place of concealment .