About midnight
But it was a very little kitten , and a very lonely one , and presently it asked , plaintively , to be taken up . So the Messenger lifted the mite of fluffy fur and installed it among the linen on the table , where it went to sleep purring . Outside the open door the dew drummed loudly ; moths came in clouds , hovering like snowflakes about the doorway ; somewhere in the woods a tiger owl yelped . About midnight , lying on her sack of husks , close to the borderland of sleep , far away in the darkness she heard a shot . In one bound she was at the door , buttoning her waist , and listening . And still listening , she lighted a pine splinter , raised her cotton skirt , and adjusted the revolver , strapping the holster tighter above and below her right knee . The pulsing seconds passed ; far above the northern river bank a light sparkled through the haze , then swung aloft ; and she drew paper and pencil from her pocket , and wrote down what the torch was saying : `` Shot fired at Muddy Ford .