midnight
This pantry opened into a kind of wash-up kitchen , and in this was firewood ; there was also a cupboard , in which we found nearly a dozen of burgundy , tinned soups and salmon , and two tins of biscuits . We sat in the adjacent kitchen in the dark -- for we dared not strike a light -- and ate bread and ham , and drank beer out of the same bottle . The curate , who was still timorous and restless , was now , oddly enough , for pushing on , and I was urging him to keep up his strength by eating when the thing happened that was to imprison us . `` It ca n't be midnight yet , '' I said , and then came a blinding glare of vivid green light . Everything in the kitchen leaped out , clearly visible in green and black , and vanished again . And then followed such a concussion as I have never heard before or since . So close on the heels of this as to seem instantaneous came a thud behind me , a clash of glass , a crash and rattle of falling masonry all about us , and the plaster of the ceiling came down upon us , smashing into a multitude of fragments upon our heads .