Midnight
Perhaps it could hardly be said that silence rested on the scene ; for with a dozen and a half boys trying to get to sleep there is always more or less horseplay . But an hour later , something like quiet settled down . The fire was dying out , too , since they had no reason for keeping it going , the night air being balmy . Midnight came and went , and it must have been toward two o'clock in the morning when every boy suddenly sat upright , as though a galvanic shock had passed in and out of every tent . So it had , for the very earth trembled under them , as a terrific detonation sounded , just as though a bolt of lightning had struck a nearby tree . And some of the scouts were ready to declare that the shock had been accompanied by a brilliant electric flash , that almost blinded them . Immediately there began to be an upheaval , as blankets were tossed aside and the scouts crawled or scrambled from under , uttering all sorts of exclamations , and apparently too dazed to account for the phenomenon .