midnight
The American Indians attach all the glory or shame of a battle to the acquisition or loss of scalps , and one of their practices was to remove those who had fallen , at every hazard , in order to escape the customary mutilation . Some tribes even believed it disgrace to suffer a dead body to be struck by the enemy , and many a warrior has lost his life in the effort to save the senseless corpse of a comrade from this fancied degradation . As soon as the little stir created in the Hut by the mustering of the men was over , a stillness as profound as that which had preceded the alarm reigned around the place . No noise came from the direction of the mill ; no cry , or call , or signal of battle was heard ; everything lay in the quiet of midnight . Half an hour thus passed , when the streak of light that appeared in the east announced the approach of day . The twenty minutes that succeeded were filled with intense anxiety . The slow approach of light gradually brought out object after object in the little panorama , awakening and removing alike , conjectures and apprehensions .