midnight
Peter scowled at the now frightened hospital attendant . `` Tomorrow I shall be riding through the lowlands , Coblich , and so you may not find means to communicate with me , but before noon of the fifth have word at your town house in Lustadt for me of the success of your venture . '' They had reached the point now where the road to Tafelberg branches from that to Blentz , and the four who were to fetch the king wheeled their horses into the left-hand fork and cantered off upon their mission . The direct road between Lustadt and Tafelberg is but little more than half the distance of that which Coblich and his companions had to traverse because of the wide detour they had made by riding almost to Blentz first , and so it was that when they cantered into the little mountain town near midnight Barney Custer and Lieutenant Butzow were but a mile or two behind them . Had the latter had even the faintest of suspicions that the identity of the hiding place of the king might come to the knowledge of Peter of Blentz they could have reached Tafelberg ahead of Coblich and his party , but all unsuspecting they rode slowly to conserve the energy of their mounts for the return trip . In silence the two men approached the grounds surrounding the sanatorium . In the soft dirt of the road the hoofs of their mounts made no sound , and the shadows of the trees that border the front of the enclosure hid them from the view of the trooper who held four riderless horses in a little patch of moonlight that broke through the opening in the trees at the main gate of the institution .