midnight
Half groping with the left hand , as he held the candle with his right , he soon began to discover particulars . There were three doors , opening no doubt to rooms , on his left ; and as the light -- becoming accustomed , like men 's eyes , to the dark -- shone forwards towards the end , he saw another door , which was open . Desperate men -- and Geordie was now wound up -- aim at the farthest extremities . He made his way forward , laying down each stocking-clad foot as if in fear of being heard by the family below , whose hysterics at a tread above them at midnight , and in that house , would lead to inquiry and detection . He came at length to the open door at the end of the lobby , and ventured in . He was presently in the middle of the kitchen , holding the candle up to see as far around him as he could . Geordie had never read of those scenes of enchantment where veritable men and women , with warm blood in their veins , were , on being touched by a wand , changed into statues with the very smile on their faces which they wore at the moment of transmutation ; in which state they were to remain for a hundred years , till the wand was broken by a fairy , when they would all start into their old life .