midnight
But I tell you now because I 've got to have the speed . All right ; that 's all . '' He gave her one quick smile , then his face was set and stern again , as always at this moment , for it was the moment when he caught sight of his patient , quietly asleep , being brought to him . And it was the moment when one swift echo of the prayer he had already made upon his knees leaped through his mind -- to be gone again as lightning flashes through a midnight sky . After that there was to be no more prayer , only action . * * * * * The watching surgeons unconsciously held their breath as the operation began . For the patient on the table was James Van Horn , and the man who had taken Van Horn 's life into his hands was not a great surgeon from New York or Boston , as was to have been anticipated , but their everyday colleague Burns .