Midnight
I 'll see Colonel Arran in the morning . Good-night , my boy . '' `` Good-night , '' said Berkley in a dull voice . Midnight found him pacing the dead sod in front of the veranda , under the stars . One by one the lights in the hospital had been extinguished ; a lantern glimmered at the guard-house ; here and there an illuminated window cast its oblong of paler light across the grass . Southward the crimson radiance had died out ; softened echoes of distant gunshots marked the passing of the slow , dark hours , but the fitful picket firing was now no louder than the deadened stamp of horses in their stalls . A faint scent of jasmine hung in the air , making it fresher , though no breeze stirred .