midnight
`` I did n't realize it -- I 'm so taken up with the thought of getting back , '' said Abe . `` It 's as if my friends had a rope around me and were pulling it . '' So under the lights of heaven , speaking in the silence of the night , of impenetrable mysteries , they journeyed on toward the land of plenty . `` It 's as still as a graveyard , '' Harry whispered when they had climbed the bluff by the mill long after midnight and were near the little village . `` They 're all buried in sleep , '' said Abe . `` We 'll get Rutledge out of bed . He 'll give us a shake-down somewhere . ''