midnight
`` Fools ! '' thought Mahaffy bitterly . `` All of them fools ! '' At last he decided to go back to the judge ; and a moment later was hurrying down the lane in the direction of the highroad , but , jaded as he was by the effort he had already put forth that day , the walk to Raleigh made tremendous demands on him , and it was midnight when he entered the little town . It can not be said that he was altogether surprised when he found their cottage dark and apparently deserted . He had half expected this . Entering , and not stopping to secure a candle , he groped his way up-stairs to the room on the second floor which he and the judge shared .