midnight
He watched her into the house , turned , and was gone . A little way on in his moonlight walk James 's ears were saluted by the sound of some one whistling and crackling through the bushes , and soon Biah Carter , emerged into the moonlight , having been out to the same husking where Diana and Bill had been enjoying themselves . The sight of him resolved a doubt which had been agitating James 's mind . The note to his mother which was to explain his absence and the reasons for it was still in his coat-pocket , and he had designed sending it back by some messenger at the tavern where he took the midnight stage ; but here was a more trusty party . It involved , to be sure , the necessity of taking Biah into his confidence . James was well aware that to tell that acute individual the least particle of a story was like starting a gimlet in a pine board -- there was no stop till it had gone through . So he told him in brief that a good berth had been offered to him on the _ Eastern Star _ , and he meant to take it to relieve his father of the pressure of his education .