midnight
All was still , and Jerry set about to await midnight , when he could hope for a brief snooze . After a while the silence began to wear on his nerves and in every night noise he fancied he heard steps . He sat still and watchful , hardly breathing at times , his finger poised above a push button that would ring a bell where Mr. Fulton lay stretched out on a pallet on the floor of the tiny cabin . But midnight came and nothing had happened . He roused Phil and then hunted himself out a soft spot in which to curl up . But he had grown so used to listening that now he found he could not stop . He tried counting , only it was fish he was catching instead of sheep going through the gap in the hedge .