midnight
`` You never can tell what young fellows will do , '' murmured Old Billee . `` But I 'm glad to hear you three say you had nothing to do with it . Sort of relieves me . '' '' ` Tis n't my kind of writing , '' went on Dick as though he thought , because he had given the first alarm and had been , in fact , the only one to view the midnight intruder , that more suspicion might attach to him as the joker than to any one else . `` I 'm not much on writin ' myself , '' declared Yellin ' Kid , `` and while I might say I 'd be proud if I could sling a pen the way this feller did , I want it distinctly understood I did n't have nothin ' to do with it . '' `` You need n't tell the folks in the next county about it , '' gently chided Billee . Then he took the paper from Snake Purdee , who was curiously examining it , and subjected it to a close scrutiny .