"how long i remained unconscious i cannot tell. it must have been a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was breaking when i came to myself. my clothes were all sodden with dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded thumb. the smarting of it recalled in an instant all the particulars of my night’s adventure, and i sprang to my feet with the feeling that i might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. but to my astonishment, when i came to look round me, neither house nor garden were to be seen. i had been lying in an angle of the hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the very station at which i had arrived upon the previous night.