midnight
The experience was novel -- but I refrain . I have more important matters to relate . I was given a bunk at the extreme end of the long sleeping-tent , and turned in with the rest . I expected to sleep , but on finding that I could catch a sight of the sick tent from under the canvas , I experienced such fascination in watching this forbidden spot that midnight came before I had closed my eyes . Then all desire to sleep left me , for the patient began to moan and presently to talk , and , the stillness of the solitary height being something abnormal , I could sometimes catch the very words . Devoid as they were of all rational meaning , they excited my curiosity to the burning point ; for who could tell if he might not say something bearing on the mystery ? But that fevered mind had recurred to early scenes and the babble which came to my ears was all of mining camps in the Rockies and the dicker of horses .