midnight
`` Thanks , old chap , '' he said . `` I 'll stay for the present . There 's no withstanding you two . '' That night he excused himself from mess : and long after the house and compound had fallen asleep , he and Desmond sat together in the _ dufta _ , with pipes and pegs , and softly snoring dogs at their feet , talking intermittently of all things in earth and heaven , with the rare unreserve bred of tobacco , and the communicative influence of midnight . Talk of this kind draws men very close together ; and in the course of it Lenox discovered -- as others had done before him -- that this man who had become so intimately linked with the vital issues of his life was no mere good comrade , but a dynamic force , challenging and evoking the manhood of his friends . When they parted Lenox felt more hopeful than he had done since the arrival of Quita 's note ; and honest sleep hung heavy on his eyelids . `` Do n't believe you need the dose we spoke of after all , '' Desmond remarked on a note of satisfaction .