midnight
`` Because it would not have been true , my friend . I had already been sentenced to death . His promise could make no possible difference to my fate . They let him go , and ordered me to present myself at midnight ; so I went with him , to preserve him from the cobras in a tunnel through which he must pass . `` I brought him into this palace by hidden ways , and after I had shown him the audience hall , where these princesses are to meet , he asked me to go and find you -- that being easier for me than for him , because none in this palace would be likely to question me , whereas he would be detected instantly and watched , even if not prevented . And when I had found you -- and you nearly killed me -- some one , as you know , locked the door and shut us in here together . It is all one to me , '' he added with a shrug of the shoulders ; `` I have only until midnight at any event , and it makes small difference where I spend the intervening hours .