midnight
In silence they walked , hand in hand , along the frozen passage and down the twisting stairs , closing the house door noiselessly behind them . Outside it was very dark , save in the far east , where there was a rim of white showing in the sky like a line on a slate . The cold was biting , and a wind which had not reached the ground blew through the tree-tops with a rushing sound and sent a scurry of leaves before them on their path . Danvers had prepared himself by a lantern , and there seemed something significant of the business in hand in his determination to leave it behind ; it was in the blackness of midnight , with a silent country stretching away from them in every direction and the stillness of the dead , that the two walked the narrow path and turned into the lane which led by a cut over the rise toward the Dumfries road . At the coming out of the close-way a chill wind struck them , and Nancy , taken suddenly from the warmth of bed , drew back and shivered , at which Danvers put his arm around her , throwing part of his cape over her . Still in silence , they walked until they came to the brow of the hill , at which place the path divides , one part of it winding across the bridge to the stage road , and the other dropping down by a clump of sailors ' homes , west , to the sea . Enough light had come by this time to see the boats lying at anchor in the cove and to distinguish Bigbie 's lugger from the rest , as she bobbed up and down , her sails spread and ready to be off .