midnight
He returned to the fort to find all quiet and in order . It commanded the north road , but though the eye might weary itself with looking on the moonlit sandy valley and the opaque blue hills , there was no sight or sound of men . The stars were burning hard and cold in the vault of sky , and looking down somewhere on the march of an army . It was now close on midnight ; in five hours dawn would break in the east and the night of attack would be gone . But death waited between this midnight hour and the morning . What were Haystoun and the men from Khautmi doing ? Fighting or beyond all fighting ?