midnight
Chief Ellis drew a little nearer . `` General McComb of the State forces has called a mass meeting . He wishes you to take charge ... '' Benito found his son awaiting when he returned from the Citizens ' Mass Meeting at midnight . Robert , insisting that he was `` fit as a fiddle , '' had nevertheless been put to bed through the connivance of an anxious mother and the family physician , who found him to have suffered some severe contusions and lacerations in the morning 's fray . But he was wide awake and curious when his father 's latch key grated in the door . `` It must have seemed like old times , did n't it , dad ? ''