midnight
But there was no release . Like an ass , as I was , I had agreed to take Mallon 's trip , and I must go ahead if it made or unmade me . I ate my supper with a heavy heart , bade my landlady and her daughters a solemn good-by , then went to the theater to forget my sorrows . At midnight I was checking my sample-trunk for Albany , and persuading the baggagemaster that 218 pounds were exactly 120 . I succeeded ; but it took three ten-cent cigars to do it . The reason I call the town Albany is because that is not its name , and I may as well say here that as I write about actual incidents I do n't propose to `` lay myself liable '' by giving the name of any town or any dealer . If I call him Smith it will naturally follow that he was not Smith .