midnight
The clergyman went out , and I heard him emptying the magazine of his rifle . When he returned he sat nearer the door than before , and from that moment until we left the tent he never once took his eyes from the figure of Dr. Silence , silhouetted there against sky and canvas . And , meanwhile , the wind came steadily over the sea and opened the mist into lanes and clearings , driving it about like a living thing . It must have been well after midnight when a low booming sound drew my attention ; but at first the sense of hearing was so strained that it was impossible exactly to locate it , and I imagined it was the thunder of big guns far out at sea carried to us by the rising wind . Then Maloney , catching hold of my arm and leaning forward , somehow brought the true relation , and I realised the next second that it was only a few feet away . `` Sangree 's tent , '' he exclaimed in a loud and startled whisper . I craned my head round the corner , but at first the effect of the fog was so confusing that every patch of white driving about before the wind looked like a moving tent and it was some seconds before I discovered the one patch that held steady .