midnight
`` To-morrow , if you remain here , you must certainly meet your doom , for the Witch never keeps a prisoner past the third night . But escape is possible . Your prison door is of iron , but the shutter which bars the window is only of wood . Cut your way out at midnight , and I will have a friend in waiting to guide you to a place of safety . A faint glimmer of light on the opposite wall shows me the keyhole . I shall make my escape thereat and go to repay thy unselfish service to me . But know that the scissors move only when bidden in rhyme .