About midnight
Uncle Peter said so , and his appetite is one of those brave fighting machines that never says die till every plate is clean . I was so nervous I could n't eat a bite , but I pleaded a toothache , so they all gave me the sympathetic stare and passed me up . We went to bed early and I rehearsed mentally the stage business for the drama about to be enacted when Bunch crept through the picket lines . About midnight a dog in the neighborhood began to hurl forth a series of the most distressing bow-bows I ever heard . I arose , put up the window and looked out . I saw a tall man with a bunch of whiskers on his face flying across the lot pursued by a black-and-tan pup , which snapped eagerly at the man 's heels and seemed determined to eat him up if ever the runner stopped long enough . I felt in my bones that the one in the lead was Bunch , and I sighed deeply and went back to bed .