midnight
Here the trees stood up in great , regular rows , ordered by nature , and the brilliant moonlight clothed every one of them in a veil of silver . On such a bright night in summer the wilderness always had for him an elusive though powerful beauty , but he felt its danger . Among the mighty trunks , with no concealing thickets , he could be seen easily , if prowling savages were near , and , as he made his circles , he always hastened through what he called to himself his park , until he came to the bushes , in the density of which he was well hidden from any eye fifty feet away . It was an hour until midnight , and the radius of his circle had increased another fifty yards , when he came again to the great spaces among the oaks and beeches . Halfway through and he sank softly down behind the trunk of a huge oak . Either in fact or in a sort of mental illusion , he had heard a moccasin brush a dry leaf far away . The command of Tayoga , though spoken in jest , had been so impressive that his ear was obeying it .