midnight
`` That lie of yours imposed upon the colonel , but I had better information . '' `` A lie , you say ? True , 't was a lie when it was uttered . But afterward , some hour or so past midnight , by the good help of Father Matthieu , and with your Lieutenant Tybee for one witness and the lawyer for another , we made a sober truth of it . '' I hope , for your own peace of mind , my dears , that you may never see a fellow human turn devil in a breath as I did then . His man 's face fell away from him like a vanishing mask , and in the place of it a hideous demon , malignant and murderous , glared upon me . Twice his hand sought the sword-hilt , and once the blade was half unsheathed .