ten
o'clock
To what end ? -- this was the haunting burden of his complaint ... . How long he sat unstirring , preoccupied with fruitless inquiry , he did not guess . But later he reckoned it could not have been long after ten o'clock when he was disturbed . The sound of a footfall , hushed and stealthy on the veranda , roused him with a start , and almost at the same instant he became aware of a shadow that troubled the pool of moonlight , the foreshortened shadow of a man 's head and shoulders . He sat up , tense , rigid with surprise and wonder , and stared at the silhouetted body at pause just outside the window . The fellow was stooping to peer in .