midnight
If simple robbery would not succeed , we could take a life . '' `` Murder ? '' `` Ay , call it by its proper name , a murder . We sat till the midnight hour had passed , without arriving at a definite conclusion ; we saw no plan of practicable operation , and so we wandered onwards to one of those deep dens of iniquity , a gaming-house , wherein we had won and lost thousands . `` We had no money , but we staked largely , in the shape of a wager , upon the success of one of the players ; we knew not , or cared not , for the consequence , if we had lost ; but , as it happened , we were largely successful , and beggars as we had walked into that place , we might have left it independent men . `` But when does the gambler know when to pause in his career ? If defeat awakens all the raging passions of humanity within his bosom , success but feeds the great vice that has been there engendered .