midnight
`` Go ! '' she repeated in the same tone . `` You have what you need . '' And still she held her hand extended ; still without faltering she faced the five men , while the thunder , growing more distant , rolled sullenly eastward , and the midnight rain , pouring from every spout and dripping eave about the house , wrapped the passage in its sibilant hush . Gradually her eyes dominated his , gradually her nobler nature and nobler aim subdued his weaker parts . For she understood now ; and he saw that she did , and had he been alone he would have slunk away , and said no word in his defence . But one of the men , savage and out of patience , thrust himself between them .