midnight
The Indians , who all dearly loved the lost little ones , sat back in the gloom and were still and quiet . A kind of stupor seemed to be over them all , with one exception , and , strange to say , that one was Mustagan . Sharp eyes were on him , and some wondered why he was so strangely agitated and was so restless and excited . A little after midnight he abruptly sprang up , and speaking to Big Tom and a couple of other Indians they all withdrew some distance back into the darkness of the forest . To them in quiet tones , so as not to be heard by the sorrowing ones at the camp fire , Mustagan told what he had seen just as the darkness had set in . When they heard his story they were as much excited as was he . His story was this : he had pushed on in the direction he had selected in the hunt for the children , and toward evening he had reached a part of the country where the berries were very plentiful .