midnight
With stealthy step he retreated from the house till there was no longer any danger of being discovered . Quickening his pace , he soon reached the pier , and with the skiff boarded the Greyhound . The night was certainly favorable for the execution of dark deeds . The midnight assassin , the incendiary , or the burglar would have rejoiced in its darkness , its dense black clouds , and its fitful winds . Richard Grant still felt the cowhide of his enemy tingling upon his legs , and still felt its iron piercing his soul . The injury he had received a week before , rankled in his bosom as it had the hour after it had been inflicted . Neither the time that had elapsed , nor the peril attending his present enterprise , in any degree moderated the spirit of revenge that burned in his soul .