midnight
Tracks had to be covered and diversions created , and there was much hiding behind logs and in clumps of scrub ; indeed , the police were only foiled at length by the exertion of that subtle strategy for which Moonlighter was notorious . It was after one o'clock in the morning when Cow Flat was reached . The little township slept , steeped in darkness , beside its sluggish strip of creeping ` slurry ' miscalled a creek . Beyond , on the rise , a big mine clattered and groaned , and puffed its glowing clouds of steam against the sky ; but Cow Flat had settled down into silence after the midnight change of shifts , and a mining township sleeps well . For all that it was a stealthy and cautious band Moonlighter led down to the old battered engine-house by the edge of the common , where the goats of Cow Flat were known to herd in large numbers . Sure enough here were goats of both sexes , and all sorts and sizes -- sleeping huddled in the ruined engine-house , on the sides of the grass-grown tip , in the old bob-pit , and upon the remains of the fallen stack . Carefully and quietly the animals were awakened ; slyly they were drawn forth , with gentle whispered calls of ` Nan , nan , nan ! '