midnight
A noise that might have come from a distant sawmill rewarded the effort . `` A nut or a pin loose , '' suggested Walter , who now did what Jack called the `` collar-button crawl '' under the big car . But that was only the beginning , and the end was that night came on and made faces at a very desolate party of young people , stalled miles from nowhere , with nothing but remorse of conscience to keep off the damp , night air . Jack went around literally kicking himself , demanding to know whether they had n't done the same thing before , and dumped those poor girls in a graveyard at midnight . When would boys learn that girls ca n't be trusted out of sight , and so , while the boys are supposed to be the girls ' brothers , these same brothers must forego sport of the racing brand ? Jack really felt the situation keenly . There was no way out of it , the girls could not get to a town even in the able-bodied cars , for Cora would no more leave her _ Whirlwind _ there in the darkness than she would have left Bess or Belle .