Midnight
`` Perhaps I had better telephone Judge Cutler and let him handle it -- '' The judge promised to be down at once , and Mary turned to her mail . Near the bottom she found a letter addressed in Burdon 's writing . It was unstamped and had evidently been left at the office . The date-line simply said `` Midnight . '' It was a long letter , some of it clear enough and some of it obscure . Mary was puzzling over it when Judge Cutler and Hutchins entered . As far as she could remember , it was the first time that the butler had ever appeared at the factory .