midnight
There were at most a dozen men , and they might have been a band of belated workmen returning to their homes or a line of revellers that had been sobered into silence . They might have been -- but a sudden recollection came to him , and he closed the door softly and went out . There was but one thing that it meant ; this he knew . It meant a midnight attack on the gaol , and a man dead before morning , who must die anyway -- it meant vengeance so quiet yet so determined that it was as sure as the hand of God -- and it meant the defiance of laws whose guardian he was . He broke into a run , crossing the green and following the path that rose and fell into the gullies as it led on to the gaol . As he ran he saw the glow of the night-lamp in the sick-room , and he heard the insistent baying of the hound . The moonlight was thick and full .