midnight
These he carried back to the sitting-room , and extracted from the coat pocket two huge keys tied together with a piece of string . He never doubted that they were the keys he sought , one opening the stable door and the other the gates of the porte-cochere . He replaced the garments , and then to make doubly sure , he waited yet -- in a fever of impatience -- another half-hour by his watch . It wanted a few minutes to midnight when , taking up his cloak and a lantern he had lighted , he went below once more . In the common-room he found precisely the scene he had expected . Both Charlot 's men and his own followers lay about the floor in all conceivable manner of attitudes , their senses locked deep in the drunken stupor that possessed them . Two or three had remained seated , and had fallen across the table , when overcome .