About midnight
Throughout the day and the moonlight not a sound of a drum or the voice of a native disturbed the moist heat . He slept for a while and then took to pacing upon the levee outside the fort . He was aware of a restlessness among the men . About midnight a nervous sentry fired at a moving shadow in the village . Erratic shots followed ; flickered and ceased at the sergeant 's angry order . The trees seemed to whisper mockingly . The sergeant decided that it must have been a prowling jackal or hyena ; but the incident made him irritable .