midnight
The very words of Sergeant Cuff recurred to me , as if the man himself was at my side again , pointing to the unanswerable inference which he drew from the smear on the door . `` Find out whether there is any article of dress in this house with the stain of paint on it . Find out who that dress belongs to . Find out how the person can account for having been in the room , and smeared the paint between midnight and three in the morning . If the person ca n't satisfy you , you have n't far to look for the hand that took the Diamond . '' One after another those words travelled over my memory , repeating themselves again and again with a wearisome , mechanical reiteration . I was roused from what felt like a trance of many hours -- from what was really , no doubt , the pause of a few moments only -- by a voice calling to me .