about midnight
It seemed to me that we were simply going over and over the same ground again ; and so I took note of some salient point , and found that this was so . I would have liked to have asked the driver what this all meant , but I really feared to do so , for I thought that , placed as I was , any protest would have had no effect in case there had been an intention to delay . By-and-by , however , as I was curious to know how time was passing , I struck a match , and by its flame looked at my watch ; it was within a few minutes of midnight . This gave me a sort of shock , for I suppose the general superstition about midnight was increased by my recent experiences . I waited with a sick feeling of suspense . Then a dog began to howl somewhere in a farmhouse far down the road -- a long , agonised wailing , as if from fear . The sound was taken up by another dog , and then another and another , till , borne on the wind which now sighed softly through the Pass , a wild howling began , which seemed to come from all over the country , as far as the imagination could grasp it through the gloom of the night .