midnight
If we continue to Peschiera , and this man is after us , we are lost . '' `` But if he does not find us he may return here -- he will surely return here ! '' `` He can not return before morning . It is close on midnight already . Meanwhile you can take a few hours ' rest while I devise means of reaching the lake by some mule-track across the mountain . '' It cost him an effort to take this tone with her ; but he saw that in her high-strung mood any other would have been less effective . She rose slowly , keeping her eyes on him with the look of a frightened child .