midnight
said Mary Morfe . `` You 've got a full twenty minutes , '' Mr Morfe repeated . The clock showed three minutes past nine . The electric cars to and from the town of Turnhill were rumbling past the very door of the Morfes every five minutes , and would continue to do so till midnight . But Silverhays is a mining village a couple of miles beyond Turnhill , and the service between Turnhill and Silverhays ceases before ten o'clock . Eva 's father was a colliery manager who lived on the outskirts of Silverhays . `` I 've got a piece of news , '' said Eva .