midnight
His rifle had fallen from his hand , and was not found again until daybreak , as not knowing where he stood , whether upon the edge of some precipice or ravine , he scarcely dared move a limb . Ah ! if the night was so weary to the watchers by the river shore , it was much more so to him for whom they thus lay awake . Utter midnight blackness all around , the profound and impressive stillness made more profound and impressive by the trickling of some current near , the occasional glimpse of some tiny star twinkling among the dark , straggling clouds overhead ; such was Elwood Brandon 's situation and surroundings . His only resource was thought , and the direction which this took for a time was anything but a relief . He saw that he himself was to blame for the disaster of the day . It was he who proposed this ramble , and he who insisted so strenuously upon separating from Howard in the journey around the hills .