midnight
Alexander demanded in a taunting voice , though inwardly she felt that the peril was pregnant and immediate . The only satisfaction she could deny them now was that of any confessed fear . This time the speaker snarled his answer back at her angrily , without any consistent attempt at holding the ritualistic impressiveness of manner . `` Mebby we 're waitin ' fer midnight -- twell ther black cat comes . '' Alexander could not guess that all these malefactors were on tenterhooks of misgiving because the arrangement entered into as a concession to the vanity of Jase Mallows had failed ; the fictitious rescue which was to re-establish him in the eyes of the girl and give to them the chance to practice highway robbery , still stopping short of murder . The whole scheme had been cut to that pattern and it was now too late to evolve a new strategy . The trial was to have seemed genuine .