midnight
`` You need n't be uneasy about that , '' Deede Dawson said , and laughed . `` You see , I know his plans , '' he repeated , and laughed again ; and still laughing that chill , mirthless way of his , he turned and walked back towards the house . Dunn watched him go through the darkness , and to himself he muttered : `` Yes , but I wonder if you do . '' The hour was late by now , but Dunn felt no inclination for sleep , and there was no need for him to return indoors as yet , since Deede Dawson , who always locked up the house himself , never did so till past midnight . Till the small hours , very often he was accustomed to sit up absorbed in those chess problems , the composing and solving of which were his great passion , so that , indeed , it is probable that under other circumstances he might have passed a perfectly harmless and peaceful existence , known to wide circles as an extraordinarily clever problemist and utterly unknown elsewhere . But the Fate that is , after all , but man 's own character writ large , had decreed otherwise . And the little , fat , smiling man bending over his travelling chess board on which he moved delicately to and fro the tiny red and white men of carved ivory , now and again removing a piece and laying it aside , had done as much with as little concern to his fellow creatures from the very beginning of his terrible career .