Midnight
Not only were his eyes searching with an almost unblinking watchfulness , but his ears , too , were busy with that intense , nerve-racking straining which leaves them ever ready to carry the phantom sounds of imagination to the impatient brain above . It was a long , intense vigil , and a hundred times the waiting man saw movements and heard sounds which set him ready to give the final signal which was to complete the carefully laid plans of his chief . But , in each case , he was spared the false alarm to which tricks of imagination so nearly drove him . Midnight came and passed . The sky grew more threatening . The man 's eyes were upon that distant , southern upland which marked the skyline . Something seemed to be moving in the hazy distance , but as yet there was no sound accompanying the movement .