midnight
The car , running a little less than locomotive speed , shot across the strip of sidewalk , caught its right forewheel against a sapling , swung heavily broadside to the drive , and turned completely over as it shot down the slope to the lake . A terrific crash was followed by a hideous chorus of oaths , shrieks , cries and groans . Promptly Lanyard started his motor anew and , trembling in every limb , ran on for several hundred yards . But time pressed , and the usefulness of his car was at an end , as far as he was concerned ; there was no saying how many times its identity might not have been established by the police in the course of that wild chase through Paris , or how soon these last might contrive to overhaul and apprehend him ; and as soon as a bend in the road shut off the scene of wreck , he stopped finally , jumped down , and plunged headlong into the dark midnight heart of the Bois , seeking its silences where trees stood thickest and lights were few . Later , like some worried creature of the night , panting , dishevelled , his rough clothing stained and muddied , he slunk across an open space , a mile or so from his point of disappearance , dropped cautiously down into the dry bed of the moat , climbed as stealthily a slippery glacis of the fortifications , darted across the inner boulevard , and began to describe a wide arc toward his destination , the hôtel Omber . He was singularly free from any sort of exultation over the manner in which he had at once compassed his own escape and brought down catastrophe upon his self-appointed murderers ; his mood was quick with wonder and foreboding and bewilderment . The more closely he examined the affair , the more strange and inexplicable it bulked in his understanding .