midnight
I repeated my question , and he , with great good-humor , responded that he had no claim upon the place , and was delighted to find a companion of similar tastes ; I went on undressing without more ado , and in a minute more was ploughing about in the water , the first nip of which had an icy and almost maddening delight in it . I found out later on that the stream came almost straight from the mountain-tops of ice and snow . `` You would not have bathed here five or six hours ago , '' said my companion , as he swam beside me . `` The storm lasted but two hours , yet the river was raging here until long after midnight . It falls , however , as soon as it rises , and now , except for the wet banks , you would hardly guess that it had been in flood . '' I had reason to remember what he said not very much later on , at a moment perhaps as anxious as any I have ever had to face in my life . But that will come in its place , and I only notice it here because it was one of those odd things in life that we all notice at one time or another , that at our first accidental meeting the man whose business it was to guard the prisoner I had come to rescue should give me a bit of comforting knowledge in this way .