midnight
`` You are not to assume anything whatever , '' he declared . `` You are to accommodate yourself to actual facts . The time is not up . It is not up till midnight , and any action taken before then on any other assumption will give grounds for damages . '' Crozier spoke without passion and with a coldblooded insistence not lost on Burlingame . Taking down a calendar from the wall , he laid it beside the paper on the table before the too eager lawyer . `` Examine the dates , '' he said .