midnight
After a long pause , he added , `` In some ways I am like my mother . '' Two days later , Rolf chanced to see his friend behind the shanty give Skookum the pan to clean off after they had been frying deer fat . The Indian had no idea that Rolf was near , nor did he ever learn the truth of it . That night , after midnight , the lad rose quietly , lighted the pine splints that served them for a torch , rubbed some charcoal around each eye to make dark rings that should supply a horror-stricken look . Then he started in to pound on Quonab 's tom-tom , singing : `` Evil spirit leave me ; Dog-face do not harm me . '' Quonab sat up in amazement . Rolf paid no heed , but went on , bawling and drumming and staring upward into vacant space .