midnight
After the first hours of the morning had passed , and the townspeople had gone from the bank , Robert Hendricks began to burrow into the books . He felt instinctively that he would find there the solution of the puzzle that perplexed him . For he was sure Molly Culpepper had not jilted him wantonly . He worked all the long spring afternoon and into the night , and when he could not sleep he went back to the bank at midnight , following some clew that rose out of his under-consciousness and beckoned him to an answer to his question . The next morning found him at his counter , still worrying his books as a ferret worries a rat . They were beginning to mean something to him , and he saw that the bank was a worm-eaten shell . When he discovered that Brownwell 's notes were not made for bona fide loans , but that they were made to cover Barclay 's overdrafts , he began to find the truth , and then when he found that Colonel Culpepper had lent the money back to the bank that he borrowed from Brownwell , -- also to save John 's overdrafts , -- Bob Hendricks ' soul burned pale with rage .