About midnight
`` I would n't stir the boys up , '' he panted , for the pace was very swift . `` They 'll kill some one over there , it 'll be murder on both sides . '' He received no answer . About midnight they came to the camp . Two great fires leaped among the trees , and the men , past the idea of sleep , grouped between them , talking . The lesson of twisted timbers was not lost to their experience , and the evening had brought its accumulation of slow anger against the perpetrators of the outrage . These men were not given to oratorical mouthings , but their low-voiced exchanges between the puffings of a pipe led to a steadier purpose than that of hysteria .