about one o'clock in the morning
With it I saw mentally the desolate moorland flowing like a sea about the old house , the treeless expanse of lonely hills , the nearer copses , sombre and mysterious in the night . The plantation , too , in particular I saw , and imagined I heard the mournful whisperings that must now be a-stirring among its tree-tops as the breeze played down between the twisted stems . In the depth of the room behind us the shafts of moonlight met and crossed in a growing network . It was after an hour of this wearing and unbroken attention , and I should judge about one o'clock in the morning , when the baying of the dogs in the stableyard first began , and I saw John Silence move suddenly in his chair and sit up in an attitude of attention . Every force in my being instantly leaped into the keenest vigilance . Colonel Wragge moved too , though slowly , and without raising his eyes from the table before him . The doctor stretched his arm out and took the white cloth from the bowl .