midnight
Both men walked along silently until they reached Mrs. Hawkins ' boarding house ; here the Professor stopped and bade ` Zekiel good night . After doing so he added : `` Pettengill , you and me must jine agin the common enemy . This town ai n't big enough to hold us and this destroyer of our happiness , and we must find some way of smokin ' him out . '' The slumbers of both ` Zekiel and the Professor were broken when the jolly party returned home after midnight . ` Zekiel recalled Hiram 's description of the arrangement of seats , and another deep sigh escaped him ; but this time there were no leafless trees and winter wind to supply an echo . The Professor 's half-awakened mind travelled in very different channels . He imagined himself engaged in several verbal disputes with a number of fisticuff encounters in which he invariably proved to be too much for the city fellow .