midnight
But he was a harmless man , and he is too old to have any vigour . '' As the darkness grew over the hills the fires were brightened and the curious game of _ khoti _ was played in groups of six . The women came to the house-doors to sit and gossip , and listened to the harsh laughter of their lords from beside the fires . A little after midnight , when the stars were picked out in the deep , velvet sky , Fazir Khan and the stranger , both muffled to the ears , stole beyond the street and scrambled down the perilous path-ways to the south . Towards the close of a wet afternoon two tongas discharged Lewis , George , two native servants , and a collection of gun-cases in the court-yard of the one hotel in Bardur . They had made a record journey up country , stopping to present no letters of introduction , which are the thieves of time . Now , as Lewis found himself in the strait valley , with the eternal snows where the sky should be , and sniffed the dry air from the granite walls , he glowed with the pleasure of recollection .