midnight
In his sudden move to rid himself of the torture to his flesh , he threw off the red-hot candle of wood , and it fell straight downward , sizzling once where it struck in a trickle of the water . Reviling himself for a stupid blunderer , and arousing vividly to a sense of where he was , and why , he began to question the expediency of returning at once to the terrace . He was still debating the wisdom of the move , when the question was decided by the tiger . That belated midnight reveler -- the old roué of the jungle -- was ushered in with questionable pomp -- the panic of lesser brutes in flight . And when he drank , beside the useless bomb , there was no mistaking his presence . He presently paused , half satisfied , and lifted his head , against the shudder of the water , to sniff at the jungle breeze . The wind had betrayed the presence of the man , and the great brute voiced his satisfaction .