midnight
In one and the same instant Lanyard darted back and dropped upon his knees in the shadow of the club lounge , and the door to the hallway slammed open . A knot of men , to the number of half a dozen , tumbling into the library , saw that figure floundering amid the ruins of the window , and made for it , passing on the other side of the lounge , between it and the fireplace . Unseen , Lanyard rose , ran crouching across the room ; found the side door , opened it just far enough to permit the passage of his body , and drew it to behind him . Ninety-fifth Street was a lonely lane of midnight quiet . He sped across it like the shadow of a cloud wind-hunted . In those days New York nights were long ; this was still young when Lanyard sauntered sedately from a side street and stopped on a corner of Broadway in the Nineties ; he had not long to wait ere a southbound taxicab hove in sight and sheered over to the curb in answer to his signal . It was still something short of one o'clock when he was set down at his door .