midnight
`` Let him sleep ! He has earned his sleep . He has saved our face ! '' It was after midnight when Mr. Tutt , heavily laden with princely gifts of ivory and jade and boxes of priceless teas , emerged from the side door of the Shanghai and Hongkong American-Chinese Restaurant . The sky was brilliant with stars and the sidewalks of Doyers and Pell Streets were crowded with pedestrians . Near by a lantern-bedecked rubber-neck wagon was in process of unloading its cargo of seekers after the curious and unwholesome . On either side of him walked Wong Get and Buddha .