twelve o'clock
The girl limp and helpless in my arms , not a soul in the house , me not knowing where to lay hands on a drop of brandy , to say nothing of a glass of water , and , above all , the peculiar feeling that something not over-pleasant must have frightened Betsy , and that it might frighten me before many minutes had passed . Listening intently , I could not at first hear a sound in all the house -- but just when I was telling myself not to be a fool , I heard , as plainly as ever I heard anything in my life , a sigh as of some one groaning in pain ; and at that I do believe I dropped the girl clean on to the floor and made a dash into the nearest room in a state of mind I should have been ashamed to confess even to my own brother . What did it mean , who was playing tricks with us , and what was the mystery ? I looked round the apartment and made it out to be the dining-room , plainly furnished , well lighted , but as empty of people as Westminster Abbey at twelve o'clock of a Sunday night . A smaller room to the right lay in darkness , but I found the switch and satisfied myself in a moment that no one was hidden there ; nor did a search in every nook and cranny near by enlighten me further . What was even worse was the fact that I could now hear the groaning very plainly ; and when I had stood a minute , with my heart beating like a steam pump and my eyes half blinded with the shadows and the light , I discovered , just in a flash , that whoever groaned was not in any room of the house , neither in the hall nor upon the staircase , but in the very basket I had just laid down and should have carried to the floor above before many minutes had passed . I am not going to state here precisely what I thought or did when I made that astonishing discovery , or just what I felt at the moment when I tried to understand its significance .