Midnight
And Rosenlaube added in his most impressive literary manner : `` Plato , it _ must _ be so , thou reasonest well . '' `` But tell me , '' said the lieutenant , `` what were you fellows chattering about so loud when I came down ? '' So they told him , and , according to the habit of college boys , they skirmished over the ground of debate again , and Barker Bunn vigorously supported the majority opinion , and Mitchell was left in a hopeless minority of one , clinging obstinately to his faith that there had been , and still might be , some use for the German language . Midnight came , and with it the return of the lieutenant 's official manner . He saw the trio slide over the top , one by one , vanishing in the starless dark . `` Good luck going and coming , '' he whispered ; and it sounded almost like an unofficial prayer . In single file they crept through the prepared opening in the barbed-wire entanglement , and so out into No Man 's Land , where they took up their spike-team formation .