midnight
There were thirty-eight notes of five hundred pounds each , tied in the same delicate and feminine fashion . Then there were notes of one hundred and of fifty , to the value of seven hundred pounds . And at the bottom of the bag was a great loose handful of gold , all in bright sovereigns and half-sovereigns , fresh from the Mint . I estimated this little mass of coined gold at three hundred pounds ; but just as I was in the act of counting it , the ring of a bell in violent motion tingled through the midnight silence of the house , and I paused . I heard a door thrown open , and an urgent voice at an incredible pitch shrieked , `` Thieves ! '' `` Murder ! '' Then the bell sounded again and yet again , until I heard it fall with a crash upon the stone floor of the corridor below .