nearly midnight
`` Now , '' Leslie concluded , `` you know as much of Dexter Ralston as I do . And I think you will quite agree with me that he is one of the last men I could have expected to meet in the streets of New York at the present moment , when martial law is so prevalent and Fort Lafayette so convenient . '' `` Humph ! '' said Harding , getting up from the bed where he had lounged so long , examining his watch to see that it was nearly midnight , and lighting a fresh cigar to go home . `` Humph ! well , what do you make of him ? A leading traitor , deep in the counsels of Jeff .