midnight
The gates were open , and I hastened to my father 's house . My first thought was to discover what I knew of the murderer , and cause instant pursuit to be made . But I paused when I reflected on the story that I had to tell . A being whom I myself had formed , and endued with life , had met me at midnight among the precipices of an inaccessible mountain . I remembered also the nervous fever with which I had been seized just at the time that I dated my creation , and which would give an air of delirium to a tale otherwise so utterly improbable . I well knew that if any other had communicated such a relation to me , I should have looked upon it as the ravings of insanity . Besides , the strange nature of the animal would elude all pursuit , even if I were so far credited as to persuade my relatives to commence it .