midnight
`` No , I simply told the truth , '' he answered . `` We who calculate in terms of eternity and infinity have scant use for untruth . I told the Nine Unknown the exact truth -- that this man Athelstan King might not be killed , because of the consequences ; and that whatever he might say to certain officers of the Government would be believed . So they let him go again , and set midnight to-night as the hour of the beginning of my death . '' `` Did King know that his refusal to promise entailed your death ? '' I asked . He shook his head .