midnight
Roger passed rather a restless night . He had put Elsa 's cot which she never had used , in the living tent so that Elsa could be close to her two patients , and himself put in the night in Gustav 's shack which was built against the kitchen tent . It was early July and the summer 's heat was at its height . Three times between midnight and dawn Roger scratched a match and looked at the thermometer . It never registered below 118 ° . Even the night wind did not rise . The silence of the desert was complete as though torridity had overwhelmed every other aspect of nature .