midnight
`` Fudge ! '' said the half-pay officer . `` Fudge , if you please ! -- But did n't Corney Van Zandt see him at midnight , stalking about in the meadow with his wooden leg , and a drawn sword in his hand , that flashed like fire ? And what can he be walking for , but because people have been troubling the place where he buried his money in old times ? '' Here the landlord was interrupted by several guttural sounds from Ramm Rapelye , betokening that he was laboring with the unusual production of an idea . As he was too great a man to be slighted by a prudent publican , mine host respectfully paused until he should deliver himself .