midnight
`` Oh yes , do let 's have the rest of the story first , '' pleaded Bob . `` There is n't much left now , '' said Mrs. Orban . `` I was only telling him how we once lost Dorothy in a game of hide-and-seek when she was five years old . We had been hunting the house for hours ; a sort of awful silence had fallen among us , as if we were expecting I do n't know what -- '' `` When close upon midnight , '' quoted Eustace in a mysterious voice . `` There arose the cry of a terror-stricken child -- shriek upon shriek -- feeble because of the distance it was from the great hall , where we were all mustered in shivering silence , but distinct enough to be recognized as Dorothy 's voice . I shall never forget it -- it makes me shudder now -- for the panic in that child 's cry was appalling . What was being done to her ?