midnight
With a final , `` Take it easy , '' to Arima , Orme now started down the road toward the lights of a house , a quarter of a mile ahead . He had it in mind to examine the papers , to find a clue to the name of the girl 's father . The sentiment which had led him to refuse her offer to tell him everything must now be neglected . There might still be time to deliver the papers before midnight , but he did not dare delay . For one thing , he had only the haziest notion as to his whereabouts . Obviously he was somewhere west of Evanston , but that meant little in an unfamiliar country . He would have to find some conveyance .