midnight
By the time he had finished , Mr. Rover had gone to bed , so his son also retired , without probing the Eclipse Mine affair any further . But it was a long time before Dick got to sleep , so full was his head of the suddenly proposed trip to the West . On the following morning Tom and Sam arrived , as anxious as Dick had been to learn the particulars of what had occurred . They listened to their father 's story with interest , as he told of how he had heard a noise and gone below to grapple with the midnight intruder who was ransacking the library desk , and of how Randolph Rover had come to his assistance and been seriously wounded , and how all were now certain that the unwelcome visitor had been Arnold Baxter -- that is , all but Randolph Baxter , who lay semi-unconscious , in a high fever , and who knew nothing . The doctor came in at noon , and pronounced Randolph Rover but little better . `` He must be kept very quiet , '' said the medical man . `` Do not allow anybody to disturb him .