Twelve
o'clock
Victor drew close to the table , and listened for some moments to the breathing of the sleeper . Then he took a small bottle from his pocket , and dropped a few globules of some colourless liquid into the empty glass . Having done this , he withdrew from the apartment as silently as he had entered it . Twelve o'clock struck as he was leaving the terrace . `` So , '' he muttered , `` it is little more than three-quarters of an hour since I left the servants ' hall . It would not be difficult to prove an _ alibi _ , with the help of a blundering village innkeeper . '' He did not attempt to leave the castle by the court-yard , which he knew would be locked by this time .