midnight
Then the soldier continued : `` Putnam , of course , with his jolly common sense , pooh-poohed all my fears ; and from that time dates his doubt of my mental balance . Well , I 'll simply tell you , in the fewest words , the three things that have happened since ; and you shall judge which of us is right . `` The first happened in an Indian village on the edge of the jungle , but hundreds of miles from the temple , or town , or type of tribes and customs where the curse had been put on me . I woke in black midnight , and lay thinking of nothing in particular , when I felt a faint tickling thing , like a thread or a hair , trailed across my throat . I shrank back out of its way , and could not help thinking of the words in the temple . But when I got up and sought lights and a mirror , the line across my neck was a line of blood . `` The second happened in a lodging in Port Said , later , on our journey home together .