midnight
This tremor seemed suddenly to explode into a mounting shudder of fear , flashing and leaping through his body until the very hair of his head was stirred and moved with it . The next moment the startled body responded to clamoring volition , and he turned and fled blindly back into the outer passageway , with a ludicrous and half-articulate little howl of terror . For growing out of the utter blackness he had seen two vague points of light , two luminous spots , side by side , taking on , as he faced them , all the mysteries of all the primeval night which man ever faced . He felt like a hunter , in some jungled midnight , a midnight breathless and soundless , who looks before him , and slowly discerns two glowing and motionless balls of fire -- who can see nothing else , in all his world -- but from those two phosphorescent points of light knows that he is being watched and stalked and hunted by some padded Hunger lurking behind them . In the unbroken and absolute silence which seemed to mock at his foolish and stampeding fears , an immediate reaction of spirit set it . He felt almost glad for this material target against which to fling his terrors , for this precipitation of apprehension into something tangible . He groped through his bag , hurriedly yet cautiously , for his little sperm-oil lantern .