midnight
The luck suddenly declared openly for Ellis , the Dummy and Vandover merely fighting for second place . Ellis held his lead ; at one o'clock he was nearly fifty dollars ahead of the game . The profound silence of the room seemed to widen about them . After midnight the noises in the hotel , the ringing of distant call bells , the rattle of dishes from the kitchens , the clash of closing elevator doors , gradually ceased ; only at long intervals one heard the hurried step of a bell-boy in the hall outside and the clink of the ice in the water pitcher that he was carrying . Outside a great quiet seemed in a sense to rise from the sleeping city , the noises in the streets died away . The last electric car went down Kearney Street , getting under way with a long minor wail . Occasionally a belated coupé , a nighthawk , rattled over the cobbles , while close by , from over the roofs , the tall slender stack upon the steam laundry puffed incessantly , three puffs at a time , like some kind of halting clock .