about twelve o'clock
We neither of us closed an eyelid , so alert were we for the expected footstep on the other side of the door . They gave us a reasonable time to go to sleep . Our extinguished candle told them we were in bed . Near about twelve o'clock our strained hearing detected the sound of a slight fumbling at the door . It opened , and the moonlight streaming in through the uncurtained windows showed us , through our half-shut eyelids , the figures of our escort and the hunchback . They moved like cats about the room . It struck me even then that they were used to these midnight searches .