midnight
I think he spoke the truth ; he said he had been alone on the road all day , and had been scared out of his wits by hearing the man turn in the coffin . He seemed well frightened , too . Of course , if this is true , the man could not really have been dead ; but I 'm not trying to give an explanation ; I 'm just telling you what occurred . Well , things went on quietly enough for another month , and on the last night of the old year the place was snowed up -- tracks , roads , everything -- and at midnight an old man came about who answered to the description I had of the dead man , clothes and all , for it seems they were burying him in his clothes . He was rather deaf , and blind I think , though I 'm not sure , and he seemed to be wandering in his mind somehow ; but he was a fine , powerful fellow -- reminded me a little of father -- and the pathetic thing about it was that he had got the idea into his head -- '' Here Alec stopped , and , holding the pen idly in his hand , sat lost in thought . So wistful did he look , so wrapt , that Bates , glancing furtively at him , thought the letter had raised associations of his home and childhood , and took himself off to bed , hoping that the letter would be more brotherly if the writer was left alone . But when Alec put pen to paper again he only wrote : -- `` Well , I do n't know that it matters what he had got into his head ; it had n't anything to do with whether he was Cameron -LRB- the name of the man supposed dead -RRB- or not .