midnight
You others can lock yourselves into your rooms if you 're frightened . ' Then Oswald put his brave young head out of the window , and the rain dripped on to the back of his bold young neck off the roof , like a watering-pot on to a beautiful flower , and he said : ` There 's a porch to the side door . Just scoot round there and shelter , and I 'll come down in half a sec . ' A resolve made in early youth never to face midnight encounters without boots was the cause of this delay . Oswald and Dicky got into their boots and jackets , and told the girls to go back to bed . Then we went down and opened the front-door . The stranger had heard the bolts go , and he was outside waiting .