midnight
The hour of appointment was now approaching . The day had broken amidst watery clouds , driven about by a fitful , gusty wind , and every now and then sending stiff showers of rain , sufficient to have cooled the enthusiasm of any one but a hunter after the doers of evil . He had been drenched two or three times , and now he felt that a glass of brandy was necessary as an auxiliary to internal resistance against external aggression . He was soon supplied , and , wending his way to the old rendezvous , he found his guard , but without any addition to their report of midnight . Abram was long of getting up , and it seemed that he was first roused by the clink of a milkwoman 's tankard on the window-shutter . The door was slowly opened , but in place of the vendor of milk handing in to her solitary customer the small half-pint , she went in herself , pails , and tankard , and all . Our detective marked the circumstance as being unusual , and , more than unusual still , the door was partly closed upon her as she entered .