midnight
It stands drawn back a little way from the bank , with head uplifted as in challenge , looking out through the treetops across the plain . And this is Valimaki . At the foot of Valimaki a camp-fire was burning . It was midnight . A group of lumbermen were gathered round the fire , some lying stretched out with knapsacks under their heads , some leaning one against another . Blue clouds of smoke curled up from their pipes . The red fire glowed and glowed , flaring up now and again into bright flame , tinging the fir stems on the slope as if with blood , and throwing weird reflections out on to the dark waters of the river .