midnight
He finally slept beside the fire , to finish his plans in dreams . These plans , which were vague enough that night , matured fairly early in the morning . He had resolved to try for the tiger at the spring . Fully expecting to encounter abundant signs of the animal conflict of the midnight hours , he descended the trail before Elaine had appeared , intent upon removing such evidence of trouble as might be found disturbingly near their tower . There was nothing at all along the trail to show that a fight had taken place . Where the grass and shrubbery began in the clearing below the walls , there was one mere tuft of hair upon a twig . But a rod removed from this there was at least a hint as to what might have caused the engagement .