twelve o'clock
The master never inquired for him : he was glad to have the brute out of his sight : the mistress heard of the fancy which possessed him , and said nothing : she had given up thinking to win him over . So he grew quite old and grizzled , and half blind as summers and winters passed by . It grew a superstition with the servants to take care of him , and with them on their daily visits he was so affectionate and caressing as to recall the days in which some of them remembered him when his mistress lived , and he was a happy dog , as good at fighting and rat-hunting and weasel-catching as any dog in the Island . But every night as twelve o'clock struck the dog came down the attic stairs . He was suddenly alert and cheerful , and trotted by an invisible gown . Some said you could hear the faint rustle of silk lapping from stair to stair , and the dog would sometimes bark sharply as in his days of puppyhood , and leap up to lick a hand of air . The servants would shut their doors as they heard the patter of the dog 's feet coming , and his sudden bark .