midnight
They could not have been cooler than this young man , with death at the bottom of his bright and sunken eyes . He was of the type which is all muscle and no constitution ; athletes one year , dead men the next ; but until this moment the athlete had been to me a mere and incredible tradition . In the afternoon I had seen his lean knees totter under the captain 's fire . Now , at midnight -- the exact time by my watch -- it was as if his shrunken limbs had expanded in his clothes ; he seemed hardly to know his own flushed face , as he caught sight of it in my mirror . `` By Jove ! '' said he , `` this has put me in a fine old fever ; but I do n't know when I felt in better fettle . If only they get it under !