midnight
. . All was quiet at Stiffner 's . It was after midnight , and Stiffner lay dead-drunk on the broad of his back on the long moonlit verandah , with all his patrons asleep around him in various grotesque positions . Stiffner 's ragged grey head was on a cushion , and a broad maudlin smile on his red , drink-sodden face , the lower half of which was bordered by a dirty grey beard , like that of a frilled lizard . The red handkerchief twisted round his neck had a ghastly effect in the bright moonlight , making him look as if his throat was cut . The smile was the one he went to sleep with when his wife slipped the cushion under his head and thoughtfully removed the loose change from about his person .