midnight
`` Is this bona-fide ? '' asked Browdie , with a questioning glance at the informer , who had at length crept forth . `` I du n no , '' sullenly responded the mountaineer . He had acquainted the two officers , who were of a posse of revenue-raiders hovering in the vicinity , with the mysterious circumstance that a freighted wagon now and then made a midnight transit across these lonely ranges . He himself had heard only occasionally in a wakeful hour the roll of heavy wheels , but he interpreted this as the secret transportation of brush whisky from the still to its market . He had thought to fix the transgression on an old enemy of his own , long suspected of moonshining ; but he was acquainted with none of the youngsters on the wagon , at whom he had peered cautiously from behind the rocks . His actuating motive in giving information to the emissaries of the government had been the rancor of an old feud , and his detection meant certain death .