midnight
She pondered as she did these things why she should know so certainly how they must be done ? But when they were done , she said , _ `` Now ! '' ... _ and went and stood between the shafts . It was after midnight when the descent began . The moon rode high among fleecy clouds , but on either side of the road gulfs of darkness lay under motionless foliage . Sometimes the smoky light from the swaying lantern shone on a wet black branch , snapped by the gale and lying in the path , and Eleanor , seeing it , wedging her heels into the mud and sliding stones of the road , and straining backward between the shafts , would say , `` A snake ... . I must save Maurice . ''