midnight
* * * * * It was four nights ago that they were all killed together . I remember the night myself indistinctly -- it is like a dream . We were on patrol -- they , I , Mesnil Andre , and Corporal Bertrand ; and our business was to identify a new German listening-post marked by the artillery observers . We left the trench towards midnight and crept down the slope in line , three or four paces from each other . Thus we descended far into the ravine , and saw , lying before our eyes , the embankment of their International Trench . After we had verified that there was no listening-post in this slice of the ground we climbed back , with infinite care . Dimly I saw my neighbors to right and left , like sacks of shadow , crawling , slowly sliding , undulating and rocking in the mud and the murk , with the projecting needle in front of a rifle .