midnight
The fact is , I was so absorbed by the thought of the danger I stood in from this girl , I forgot everything else . Hannah 's pale face , Hannah 's look of terror , as she turned from my side and flitted down the street , were continually before me . I could not escape them ; the form of the dead man lying below was less vivid . It was as though I were tied in fancy to this woman of the white face fluttering down the midnight streets . That she would fail in something -- come back or be brought back -- that I should find her standing white and horror-stricken on the front steps when I went down in the morning , was like a nightmare to me . I began to think no other result possible ; that she never would or could win her way unchallenged to that little cottage in a distant village ; that I had but sent a trailing flag of danger out into the world with this wretched girl ; -- danger that would come back to me with the first burst of morning light ! But even those thoughts faded after a while before the realization of the peril I was in as long as the key and papers remained in my possession .