midnight
he might either force it out with a lever , or file it through ! Having removed the roughest of the rust with which it was caked , and so reduced its thickness considerably , he set himself to the task of filing it through , first at the top then at the bottom . It was a slow but a sure process , and would make no great noise . Although it was broad daylight outside , so like midnight was it here and the season that belongs to the dead , that he was haunted with the idea of a presence behind him . But not once did he turn his head to see , for he knew that if he yielded to the inclination , it would but return the stronger . Old experience had taught him that the way to meet the horrors of the fancy is to refuse them a single hair 's - breadth of obedience . And as he worked the conviction grew that the only protection against the terrors of alien presence is the consciousness of the home presence of the eternal : if a man felt that presence , how could he fear any other ?