midnight
See -- may God cut off his hand ! -- he has moved the white flag to our village . '' He pointed in a trembling fear , half real , half assumed -- for he was of a nation of liars . During the next half-hour at least a dozen Arabs came to look at the map , but they disappeared like rats in a hole when , near midnight , Fielding 's tall form appeared on the bank above . It was counted to him as a devil 's incantation , the music that he played that night , remembering his promise to Dicky Donovan . It was music through which breathed the desperate , troubled , aching heart and tortured mind of an overworked strong man . It cried to the night its trouble ; but far over in the Cholera Hospital the sick heard it and turned their faces towards it eagerly .