midnight
`` So did I , '' growled Hastings ; but he never could bear Devers , who was persistently distorting or misunderstanding the orders the adjutant was compelled to convey to him . `` Well , let him sleep , '' said Warren , finally . `` I suppose he 's tired out , and very probably Davies will speedily come in . '' But midnight came and no Davies . Out on the prairie -- now dimly lighted by the rays of the waning moon -- the pickets at the east had descried no moving objects . Every now and then the yelp of a coyote on one side of camp would be echoed far over at the other . These , with an occasional paw or snort from the side-lined herd , and the murmuring rush of the river over its gravelly bed , were the only sounds that drifted to the night-watchers from the sleeping bivouac .