midnight
He had been whittling the tree-trunk with it . `` It was a good knife , and he thought it worth while to go back and try to find it . He went back , and after quite a hunt , found it beside the tree . `` By this time it was after midnight . On his way home he passed the spot where we are now standing . `` Just as he got here , he heard a peculiar noise on the other side of the wall . It seemed strange that anybody should be at work in the garden at that hour , but the sound was as if somebody was using a shovel .