midnight
He enlivened the road with anecdotes of famous criminals , and each story invariably concluded with a facetious reference to the `` chair '' or a `` lifer . '' Once or twice he gave details of the breaking up of some notorious gang owing to information extracted from one of its minor members , who , in consequence , either escaped punishment or received a light sentence ; but the captive remained mute and apparently indifferent , whereupon Curtis , who had been revolving in his mind certain elements in a singularly complex mystery , broke fresh ground by saying : `` The strangest feature of this affair is probably unknown to you , Mr. McCulloch . To all intents and purposes , the men who killed the journalist were acting in concert with a Frenchman named Jean de Courtois , and their common object was to prevent a marriage arranged for last night . Yet this same de Courtois was found gagged and bound in his room at the Central Hotel shortly before midnight . Someone had maltreated him badly , and the wonder is he was not killed outright . '' Now , the roundsman , wedged close against the prisoner , felt the man give an almost unconscious and quite involuntary start when de Courtois was mentioned , and there could be no question that he was straining his ears to catch each syllable Curtis uttered . Nudging the latter , McCulloch said : `` So it was a near thing that two weddings were not interfered with last night , sir ? ''