midnight
All the while at the back of King Ferdinand Charles 's mind fretted the mystery of his vanished aeroplane . There came no news of its capture , and no news of its success . At any moment all that power at the back of his visitor might crumble away and vanish ... . It was past midnight , when the king , in a cloak and slouch hat that might equally have served a small farmer , or any respectable middle-class man , slipped out from an inconspicuous service gate on the eastward side of his palace into the thickly wooded gardens that sloped in a series of terraces down to the town . Pestovitch and his guard-valet Peter , both wrapped about in a similar disguise , came out among the laurels that bordered the pathway and joined him . It was a clear , warm night , but the stars seemed unusually little and remote because of the aeroplanes , each trailing a searchlight , that drove hither and thither across the blue . One great beam seemed to rest on the king for a moment as he came out of the palace ; then instantly and reassuringly it had swept away .