midnight
Through a chink of the enamelled white shutters a faint pencil of light shone out in the gloomy darkness . `` Good God ! '' he groaned , `` I would give my life to be within that room . '' For his heart told him that Irma Gluyas lay helpless within there , and he only wandered away at midnight , when a stray policeman suspiciously eyed him lingering in the alley . `` Einstein is my only hope , '' he despairingly cried , as he wandered back to the bridge and sought his lonely rooms . The silky-gray dawn found him still dressed , lying on a chair , with his eyes fixed upon the picture , the first sight of which had been the beginning of his fevered dream . And then , suddenly recalling himself , he put out the flaring lights , bathed his throbbing temples , and went out to seek an early-opening coffee-shop .