midnight
Can not we prevail upon them to close the windows , now that the mysterious prowler is secured ? We shall hear all about him when the gentlemen return , and they will not stay out of doors longer than is necessary . '' They began to pour back into the room , while she was speaking , laughing , and talking , all together shaking the snow-powder from their hair and hands , and anathematizing the cold and their thin boots . The particulars of the midnight disturbance were quickly disseminated . The ebon sentinels had , directed by the barking of their canine associates , discovered , under a holly hedge on one side of the yard , a man lying upon the earth , and almost buried in the snow he seemed not to have strength to throw off . He was either drunk or so nearly frozen as to be incapable of answering coherently their demands as to what was his name and what his business upon the premises . The interrogations of the gentlemen and the ungentle shakings administered by his captors elicited nothing but groans and muttered oaths .