nearly midnight
He said to himself that Carrots and the others might inform against him just to save themselves . So , as wretched as a boy well could be , he wandered about for an hour or two , stopping sometimes in dark corners and then hastening on again , stealing suspicious glances over his shoulders , and listening for pursuing footsteps . At last , he turned homeward , longing , yet dreading , to see his mother . It was nearly midnight when he crept softly up the stairs , but his mother had been unable to sleep , and as his hand touched the door in the darkness , she threw it open with a sigh of relief that her weary waiting was over for that night . She did not find fault with him . It seemed to her utterly useless now to complain or entreat . Dick longed to ask if she knew anything about Tode , but his tongue refused to utter the words and he tumbled into bed in gloomy silence .