midnight
`` The flare of hell ! '' he muttered , with staring , straining eyes ; `` it 's coming very near . '' Talbot saw that his reason had gone , failed suddenly , as a light goes down under a blast ; he was delirious with that sudden delirium born of the awful cold that seizes men like a wolf in the long night of the Arctic winters . For a second the helplessness of his situation flashed in upon Talbot 's brain -- alone here at midnight on the frozen trail , with a madman and a corpse ! He saw he must get help at once , and the cabins were the nearest point where help could be found . He could get men who would carry Stephen by force if necessary , but would he ever live in the fangs of this pitiless cold till they could return to him ? He stood for one moment irresolute , unwilling to leave him to meet his death , and that horrible fear that he read in those haggard eyes watching the horizon , alone ; and in that moment Stephen looked up at him and met his eye , and the madness rolled back and stood off his brain for an instant .