midnight
If there is danger hanging over this house , I wish it would drop , and have done with it . '' Marcy went to sleep with this rash wish half formed in his mind . Marcy Gray slept like a boy who had eaten heartily of mince pie for supper , that is , uneasily . But still he must have slumbered soundly or he would have heard the faint scream and the hoarse , muffled voice that came up from his mother 's room shortly after midnight , or been awakened by the swift rush of the two figures who hastened up the stairs and through the wide-open door into his room . The figures were there , but the first Marcy knew of it was when one turned up the lamp and the other laid a heavy hand upon his shoulder . Then he opened his eyes and tried to sit up , but was pressed back upon his pillow at the same instant that the cold , sharp muzzle of a revolver was put against his head . `` Keep still now , you pore white trash , and you is all right , '' said the man who held the revolver .