midnight
Sime does not stay to hear more ; but , lifting the latch , quietly pushes open the gate , and passes out into the road . Then following the negro , who flits like a shadow before him , the two are soon standing among some bushes that form a strip of thicket running along the roadside . `` Now , what air it ? '' asks Woodley of the coon-hunter , with whom he is well acquainted -- having often met him in his midnight rambles . `` Mass Woodley , you want know who kill Mass Charl Clancy ? '' `` Why , Bill , that 's the very thing we 're all talkin ' ` bout , an ' tryin ' to find out . In coorse we want to know .