three in the morning
` Ah , no , ' said my father , ` never robbed ; ' and I observed a strange conviction in his tone . At last , and not long before the blow fell on my unhappy family , I chanced to see the doctor 's house in a new light . My father was ill ; my mother confined to his bedside ; and I was suffered to go , under the charge of our driver , to the lonely house some twenty miles away , where our packages were left for us . The horse cast a shoe ; night overtook us halfway home ; and it was well on for three in the morning when the driver and I , alone in a light waggon , came to that part of the road which ran below the doctor 's house . The moon swam clear ; the cliffs and mountains in this strong light lay utterly deserted ; but the house , from its station on the top of the long slope and close under the bluff , not only shone abroad from every window like a place of festival , but from the great chimney at the west end poured forth a coil of smoke so thick and so voluminous , that it hung for miles along the windless night air , and its shadow lay far abroad in the moonlight upon the glittering alkali . As we continued to draw near , besides , a regular and panting throb began to divide the silence . First it seemed to me like the beating of a heart ; and next it put into my mind the thought of some giant , smothered under mountains and still , with incalculable effort , fetching breath .