midnight
I cried aloud in my desolation and fear and hid my face in my hands , while the icy cliffs mocked my cry and the dead maid , tripping alongside , rolled her head over , and stared at me with stony , unseeing eyes . Well , I am no fine writer . I sat down to tell a plain , unvarnished tale , and I will not let the weird horror of that ride get into my pen . We careened forward , I and those lost Martians , until pretty near on midnight , by which time the great light-giving planets were up , and never a chance did Fate give me all that time of parting company with them . About midnight we were right into the region of snow and ice , not the actual polar region of the planet , as I afterwards guessed , but one of those long outliers which follow the course of the broad waterways almost into fertile regions , and the cold , though intense , was somewhat modified by the complete stillness of the air . It was just then that I began to be aware of a low , rumbling sound ahead , increasing steadily until there could not be any doubt the journey was nearly over and we were approaching those great falls An had told me of , over which the dead tumble to perpetual oblivion . There was no opportunity for action , and , luckily , little time for thought .