midnight
Thus , Ferris stumbled over it ; and would have fallen but for the aid of his friends . The single village street was pitch black . Not a light was to be seen . This puzzled Link ; who had no means of knowing that the time was close on midnight . He started toward the store . At least that was the direction he planned to take . But when , at the end of five minutes , he found he was outside the village and on a narrow road that bordered the lake , he saw his friends had mistaken the way .