midnight
`` I wo n't touch him , if he 's dead ! '' `` He is _ not _ dead . Take him away ! '' All this time my mind was pre-occupied by the extraordinary appearance of the rocket , rising from the neighborhood of a lonely little village between midnight and one in the morning . How I connected that mysterious signal with a possibility of tracing Cristel , it is useless to inquire . That was the thought in me , when I led my lost darling 's father back to his room . Without stopping to explain myself , I reminded him that the cottage was quiet again , and told him to wait my return .