midnight
There was not much chance for him by the next morning , and less the following night when the oxygen tanks arrived . Portlaw , profoundly shocked and still too stunned by the swiftness of the calamity to credit a tragic outcome , spent the day in a heavily bewildered condition , wandering , between meals , from his house to the cottage where Hamil lay , and back again to the telephone . He had physicians in consultation from Utica and Albany ; he had nurses and oxygen ; he had Miss Palliser on the telephone , first in New York , then at Albany , and finally at Pride 's Fall , to tell her that Hamil was alive . She arrived after midnight with Wayward . Hamil was still breathing -- if it could be called by that name . Toward dawn a long-distance call summoned Portlaw : Malcourt was on the end of the wire . `` Is Hamil ill up at your place ? ''