midnight
In the wild remote part of the Rocky Mountains where their camp was made , neither trappers nor Indians were wont to ramble . Even wild beasts were not so numerous there as elsewhere , so that it was deemed unnecessary to keep watch during the night . But a war-party of Indians , out on an expedition against another tribe with whom they were at deadly feud , chanced to traverse the unfrequented pass at that time in order to make a short cut , and descend from an unusual quarter , and so take their enemies by surprise . Towards midnight -- when the rocky crags and beetling cliffs frowned like dark clouds over the spot where the travellers lay in deepest shade , with only a few red embers of the camp-fire to throw a faint lurid light on their slumbering forms -- a tall savage emerged from the surrounding gloom , so stealthily , so noiselessly , and by such slow degrees , that he appeared more like a vision than a reality . At first his painted visage only and the whites of his glittering eyes came into view as he raised his head above the surrounding brushwood and stretched his neck in order to obtain a better view of the camp . Then slowly , inch by inch , almost with imperceptible motion , he crept forward until the whole of his gaunt form was revealed . A scalping-knife gleamed in his right hand .