midnight
Making an effort to forget the gloomy record , he was riding on , when a figure flitting across the road arrested his attention . The clear moonlight showed the figure to be that of a man , and one whose movements betrayed absence of mind , if not actual aberration . With the instinct habitual to the hunter Woodley at once tightened rein , coming to a stop under the shadow of the roadside trees . Sitting in his saddle he watched the midnight wanderer , whose eccentric movements continued to cause him surprise . He saw the latter walk on to the little woodland cemetery , take stand by the side of a grave , bending forward as if to read the epitaph on its painted slab . Soon after kneeling down as in prayer , then throwing himself prostrate along the earth . Woodley well knew the grave thus venerated .