midnight
Then she joined in the singing of the `` Star Spangled Banner '' with all her soul in her voice . Clearly her actions told more eloquently than any passionate words her love and reverence for that flag and all it symbolized . No , it could not be possible that she could be connected with anything that aimed to harm it . And yet -- that very night Sahwah had seen Veronica leaving the house after midnight when the rest were all asleep , and going down the hill behind the barn , and at the sight Sahwah had experienced that same indescribable chill of fear that she had felt in the train ; a peculiar sense of hovering danger ; a sensation which she could never clearly define while it lasted nor describe afterwards . She still kept the secret , but it haunted her day and night and tormented her with its thousand possibilities . At last it seemed as if she could endure it no longer without an explanation of some kind and she made up her mind to ask Veronica about it . For this end she had asked her to come into the woods to-day .