hours after midnight
We walked twice the whole circuit of the upper and lower corridors , knocking on dozens of doors but getting no answer and finally brought up in the entrance hall . Then it occurred to me that Grim might have gone into the building by some private entrance , perhaps round on the eastern side , so we set out to look for one . We had just reached the northwest angle of the building , when Narayan Singh , who was walking a pace in front , stopped suddenly and held up both hands for silence . Whoever he could see among the shadows must have heard us , but it was no rare thing for officers to come roistering down those front steps and along the drive hours after midnight , and our sudden silence was more likely to give alarm than the noise had been . I began talking again in a normal voice , saying anything at all , peering about into the shadows meanwhile . But it was several seconds before I made out what the Sikh 's keener eyes had detected instantly , and Jeremy saw it before I did . There was a magnolia shrub about ten paces away from us , casting a shadow so deep that the ground it covered looked like a bottomless abyss .