midnight
Fire ! Fire ! and the sudden sound of the bell now , breaking upon the night . So stood the Dean erect , with one hand pressed against the table for support , while the Mariposa fire bell struck out its warning to the sleeping town , -- stood there while the street grew loud with the tumult of voices , -- with the roaring gallop of the fire brigade , -- with the harsh note of the gong -- and over all other sounds , the great seething of the flames that tore their way into the beams and rafters of the pointed church and flared above it like a torch into the midnight sky . So stood the Dean , and as the church broke thus into a very beacon kindled upon a hill , -- sank forward without a sign , his face against the table , stricken . You need to see a fire in a place such as Mariposa , a town still half of wood , to know what fire means . In the city it is all different .