midnight
At table , and generally when we were shut up together in Mr. Harker 's custody , we had from the first naturally discussed the day 's proceedings a good deal . On that fifth day , the case for the prosecution being closed , and we having that side of the question in a completed shape before us , our discussion was more animated and serious . Among our number was a vestryman , -- the densest idiot I have ever seen at large , -- who met the plainest evidence with the most preposterous objections , and who was sided with by two flabby parochial parasites ; all the three impanelled from a district so delivered over to Fever that they ought to have been upon their own trial for five hundred Murders . When these mischievous blockheads were at their loudest , which was towards midnight , while some of us were already preparing for bed , I again saw the murdered man . He stood grimly behind them , beckoning to me . On my going towards them , and striking into the conversation , he immediately retired . This was the beginning of a separate series of appearances , confined to that long room in which we were confined .