midnight
To-night the door was shut and the windows in some way obscured . But the interstices between the logs showed red ; the hut was lighted within , and some one was keeping tryst . The stillness was deadly . It was not silence , for the river murmured in the stiff reeds , and far off in the midnight forest some beast of the night uttered its cry , but a hush , a holding of the breath , an expectant horror . The door , warped and shrunken , was drawn to , but was not fastened , as I could tell by the unbroken line of red light down one side from top to bottom . Making no sound , I laid my hand upon it , pushed it open a little way , and looked within the hut . I had thought to find it empty or to find it crowded .