midnight
It was clear , still , beautiful . A soft April wind was drifting up from the lower coast , laden with the perfume of sweet olive and orange blossoms . Mrs. Cram , with one or two lady friends and a party of officers , had been chatting in low tone upon their gallery until after eleven , but elsewhere about the moonlit quadrangle all was silence when the second relief was posted . Far at the rear of the walled enclosure , where , in deference to the manners and customs of war as observed in the good old days whereof our seniors tell , the sutler 's establishment was planted within easy hailing-distance of the guard-house , there was still the sound of modified revelry by night , and poker and whiskey punch had gathered their devotees in the grimy parlors of Mr. Finkbein , and here the belated ones tarried until long after midnight , as most of them were bachelors and had no better halves , as had Doyle , to fetch them home `` out of the wet . '' Cram and his lieutenants , with the exception of Doyle , were never known to patronize this establishment , whatsoever they might do outside . They had separated before midnight , and little Pierce , after his customary peep into Waring 's preserves , had closed the door , gone to his own room , to bed and to sleep . Ferry , as battery officer of the day , had made the rounds of the stables and gun-shed about one o'clock , and had encountered Captain Kinsey , of the infantry , coming in from his long tramp through the dew-wet field , returning from the inspection of the sentry-post at the big magazine .