midnight
`` Even if he did , '' said Miss Greeby desperately , `` he did not leave the cottage . His housekeeper can prove -- '' `` Nothing , '' snapped Chaldea triumphantly . `` She was in her bed and the golden rye was in his bed . My brother was killed after midnight , and if the rye took a walk then , who can say where he was ? '' `` You have to prove all this , you know . '' Chaldea snapped her fingers . `` First , the letter to shame her ; then the bullet to hang him .