midnight
The man on the ground heard them with a shiver . Resolutely he kept his face turned in the opposite direction . The night mail went thundering northward , and he clutched even at the nettles which grew amongst the grass where he was crouching , as though filled with a sudden terror . Then there was silence once more -- silence which became deeper as the hour approached midnight . Passers-by were fewer ; the birds and animals came out from their hiding places . A rabbit scurried across the road ; a rat darted down the tiny stream . Now and then birds moved in the undergrowth , and the man , who was struggling all the time with a deadly faintness , felt the silence grow more and more oppressive .