midnight
`` If you do n't find him , bring it -- back . '' When the man had gone , Jethro turned down the gas and went again to his chair by the window . For a while voices came up to him from the street , but at length the groups dispersed , one by one ; and a distant clock boomed out eleven solemn strokes . Twice the clock struck again , at the half-hour and midnight , and the noises in the house -- the banging of doors and the jangling of keys and the hurrying of feet in the corridors -- were hushed . Jethro took no thought of these or of time , and sat gazing at the stars in the depths of the sky above the capital dome until a shadow emerged from the black mass of the trees opposite and crossed the street . In a few minutes there were footsteps in the corridor , -- stealthy footsteps -- and a knock on the door . Jethro got up and opened it , and closed it again and locked it .