midnight
For a long while he lay listening ; there was not a sound in the night . Little by little his coolness returned ; he thought of Lorraine and his promise , and he knew that now he could not keep it . He thought , too , of the marquis , never doubting the terrible fate of the half-crazed man . He had seen him stun the soldier with a blow of the steel box , he had seen the balloon shoot up into the midnight sky , he had heard the shot and caught a glimpse of the glare of the burning balloon . Somewhere in the forest the battered body of the marquis lay in the wreck of the shattered car . The steel box , too , lay there -- the box that was so precious to the Germans . He rose to his knees , felt around among the underbrush , bent his head and crept on , parting leaves and branches with one hand , holding the other over his eyes .