midnight
` He is a friend of mine , ' I interposed , ` and promised to take me home with him . ' ` Good ! Follow us , ' said one of them ; and now I passed through the morning streets of Paris behind three cut-throats , yet knew that I was safer than if broad daylight was in the thoroughfare , with a meridian sun shining down upon us . I was doubly safe , being in no fear of harm from midnight prowlers , and equally free from danger of arrest by the police . Every officer we met avoided us , and casually stepped to the other side of the street . We turned down a narrow lane , then through a still narrower one , which terminated at a courtyard . Entering a tall building , we climbed up five flights of stairs to a landing , where one of the scouts kicked open a door , into a room so miserable that there was not even a lock to protect its poverty .