midnight
`` In thirty minutes it will be morning , '' said George . `` Lord , such a night , and Lewis to have missed it all ! '' His spirits were rising , and he lit a pipe . The north was safe whatever happened , and , as the inertness of midnight passed off , he felt satisfaction in any prospect , however hazardous . He sat down beneath a boulder and smoked , while Andover talked with the others . They were the frontier soldiers , and this was their profession ; he was the amateur to whom technicalities were unmeaning . Suddenly he sprang up and touched St. John on the shoulder .