About six o'clock
The same night there came a hasty tapping , every now and then , at the window of the kitchen . The women grew frightened , and the servant-man , taking firearms with him , opened the back-door , but discovered nothing . As he shut it , however , he said , ` a thump came on it , ' and a pressure as of somebody striving to force his way in , which frightened _ him _ ; and though the tapping went on upon the kitchen window panes , he made no further explorations . About six o'clock on the Saturday evening following , the cook , ` an honest , sober woman , now aged nigh sixty years , ' being alone in the kitchen , saw , on looking up , it is supposed , the same fat but aristocratic-looking hand , laid with its palm against the glass , near the side of the window , and this time moving slowly up and down , pressed all the while against the glass , as if feeling carefully for some inequality in its surface . She cried out , and said something like a prayer on seeing it . But it was not withdrawn for several seconds after . After this , for a great many nights , there came at first a low , and afterwards an angry rapping , as it seemed with a set of clenched knuckles at the back-door .