midnight
`` God bless yer soul , ye had a busy night , '' said the schoolmaster with a smile . He added as he went into the house : `` I never knew a man to rest with more energy and persistence . It was a perfect flood o ' rest . It kept me awake until long after midnight . '' That last peril is one of the half-solved mysteries of my life . The following affidavit , secured by an assistant of the district attorney from a young physician in a village above Ballybeen , never a matter of record , heightened its interest for me and my friends . `` Deponent saith that about eleven o'clock on the evening of the , 24th of September -LRB- that on which the attack upon me was made -RRB- a man unknown to him called at his office and alleged that a friend of the stranger had been injured and was in need of surgical aid .