midnight
Well , I kicked him through the gate for it , and flung his basket after him ; but the tale could not be so dismissed . `` It may be , '' thought I , `` some one of Pengersick has engaged upon this wickedness on his own account '' ; and for my Master 's credit I resolved to keep watch . I took therefore the porter into my secret , who agreed to let me through the gate towards midnight without telling a soul . I took a sheepskin with me and a poignard for protection ; and for a week , from midnight to dawn , I played sentinel on Cuddan Point , walking to and fro , or stretched under the lee of a rock whence I could not miss any light shown on the headland , if Peter Chynoweth 's tale held any truth . By the eighth trial I had pretty well made up my mind -LRB- and without astonishment -RRB- that Peter Chynoweth was a liar . But scarcely had I reached my post that night when , turning , I descried a radiance as of a lantern , following me at some fifty paces . On the instant I gripped my poignard and stepped behind a boulder .