midnight
He might have suspected it ! But the idea that the girl he loved was bound up with the murderous gang that was attacking the very foundations of civilization chilled him to the soul . Dick had been picked up a few minutes after he had been struck down , identified by Colonel Stopford as he was about to be removed to a hospital , and carried into the White House . Order had been restored by the arrival of a detachment of troops from Fort Myers , the severed cables located and mended , and by midnight the interior of the Presidential home had been made habitable again . President Hargreaves was gone -- kidnapped despite the utmost efforts to protect him ; and it was impossible to conceal that fact from the world . But the wheels of government still revolved . All night an emergency council sat in the White House , and , deciding that in a time of such grave danger heroic means must be adopted , with the consent of such of the Congressional leaders as could be summoned , a Council of Defence was organized .