midnight
`` You get along as fast as ever you can , an ' if the young shavers is n't at Firgrove afore you , send somebody up wi ' a message . Then me an ' Tom Brook 'll take a look round ; an ' if they 're anywhere inside Copsley Wood , we 'll bring them home to you afore bedtime yet , I 'll be bound . '' But when nurse got back to Firgrove , Darby and Joan were still absent ; so , giving Eric in charge to Mary the cook , she sped up the hill again herself , flying as fast as fear and excitement could urge her , and reached the farm , panting and breathless , just when Mr. Grey and his head man , Tom Brook , were putting on their coats and preparing to leave the barn for the night . Until almost midnight the two men tramped hither and thither through the labyrinths of Copsley Wood , carrying the stable lantern to give them light , armed with stout sticks with which to poke among the dense undergrowth of laurel , holly , and hazel that formed such a close cover for the game of various sorts with which the wood was so thickly populated . Now and then from her form amid the withered fern a frightened hare leaped among their very feet . Startled rabbits scurried here and there over the soft moss and rustling leaves . The cry of a night-bird from time to time broke the intense stillness of the lonesome place , while more than once they were alarmed by a soft something that brushed their face , as a big , downy white owl passed them by in search of its prey .