midnight
With a sick and sinking heart -- for I did not at all like the business -- I wondered for a moment what had led Hans to take this view , which was directly opposite to any I had expected from him . Of course his superstition about the Great Medicine had something to do with it , but I felt convinced that this was not all . Even then I guessed that two arguments appealed to him , of which the first was that he desired , if possible , to put an end to this intolerable and unceasing hunt which had worn us all out , no matter what that end might be . The second and more powerful , however , was , I believed , and rightly , that the idea of this stealthy , midnight blow appealed irresistibly to the craft of his half-wild nature in which the strains of the leopard and the snake seemed to mingle with that of the human being . For be it remembered that notwithstanding his veneer of civilisation , Hans was a savage whose forefathers for countless ages had preserved themselves alive by means of such attacks and stratagems . The die having been cast , in the same infinitesimal whispers we made our arrangements , which were few and simple . They amounted to this -- that we were to creep on to the men and each of us to kill that one who was opposite to him , I with the axe and Hans with his knife , remembering that it must be done with a single stroke -- that is , if they did not wake up and kill us -- after which we were to get Inez out of her shelter , dressed or undressed , and make off with her into the darkness where we were pretty sure of being able to baffle pursuit until we reached our own camp .