midnight
Indeed , only the continual employment of the latter 's _ kukri _ , with which he hacked at the throttling creepers and clutching thorny branches , saved him . Darker and gloomier grew the way . The sides of the _ nullah _ closed in until there was scarcely room for the animals to pass , and then Dermot found Badshah had entered a natural tunnel in the mountain side . The interior was as black as midnight , and the soldier had to lie flat on the elephant 's skull to save his own head . Suddenly a blinding light made him close his eyes , as Badshah burst out of the darkness of the tunnel into the dazzling glare of the sunshine . When his rider looked again he found that they were in an almost circular valley completely ringed in by precipitous walls of rock rising straight and sheer for a couple of thousand feet . Above these cliffs towered giant mountain peaks covered with snow and ice .