midnight
The importunity had always been on the other side . Late in the evening the doctor came to Danvers ' room for the good-night call ; but the talk was wholly of Judge Latimer 's interests . `` I 'm afraid that Arthur will have a hard pull , '' regretted the old friend , `` but we will do all we can for him . I 've had a telegram calling me back to Fort Benton , and must leave on the midnight train . '' Danvers walked to the little depot , a mile from the city proper , with his friend , and after the train pulled out he again thought of Winifred . As he passed , on his way back to town , the huge piles of loose rock that the miners had left in their sluicing for gold in bygone days , his thoughts followed the girl back into the long years since he had first met her on the _ Far West _ -- a child eager for sympathy . It was odd that he had never seen her in all that time -- the years when he had unconsciously longed for friendship , and the sight of a woman 's face -- a white face .