midnight
It made me feel cold down my back somehow . After Ali slipped away I stood here -- by this table , and listened to the shouting and drumming in the settlement . Racket enough for twenty weddings . It was a little past midnight then . '' Again Almayer stopped in his narrative with an abrupt shutting of lips , as if he had said all that there was to tell , and Lingard stood staring at him , pensive and silent . A big bluebottle fly flew in recklessly into the cool verandah , and darted with loud buzzing between the two men . Lingard struck at it with his hat .