midnight
But to own the Point meant to hold on to King 's Forest just when he had decided to turn from it forever -- after setting Mary-Clare free . The sense of a spiritual overlord for an instant daunted Northrup . It was humiliating to realize how he had been treading , all along , one course while believing he was going another . And then -- it was close upon midnight and vitality ran sluggish -- Northrup became part of one of those curious mental experiences that go far to prove how narrow the boundary is that lies between the things we understand and those that are yet to be understood . For some moments -- or was it hours ? -- Northrup was not conscious of time or place ; not even conscious of himself as a body ; he seemed to be a condition , over which a contest of emotions swept . He was not asleep .