nearly midnight
`` If I may have that pleasure , '' replied the Spaniard , bowing low . `` Strangers of the morning are friends in the afternoon , in this , our life of adventure , '' laughed Ruth as they passed along the corridor to the steps . But they did not see the stranger again that day . For some mysterious reason he left the hotel in the afternoon , and did not return until nearly midnight , when Barbara , who happened to be awake , heard him whistling softly as he went down the hall to his room . It was really Miss Sallie Stuart 's fault that they were so late in starting the next day to Major Ten Eyck 's home . The automobile had been ordered to be on hand immediately after an early luncheon , but another call from one of the town police caused the first delay . The tramps had securely hidden themselves , the officer said , and no trace of them had been found in other towns in that vicinity .