midnight
`` On the whole , I am not sorry that you have married my daughter , '' he said . `` I will come down to Courmayeur . It will be pleasant to sleep in a bed . '' And together they walked down to Courmayeur , which they reached soon after midnight . In two days ' time Walter Hine was sufficiently recovered to be carried down to Courmayeur . He had been very near to death upon the Brenva ridge , certainly the second night upon which Garratt Skinner had counted would have ended his life ; he was frostbitten ; and for a long while the shock and the exposure left him weak . But he gained strength with each day , and Chayne had opportunities to admire the audacity and the subtle skill with which Garratt Skinner had sought his end .