midnight
She led the boys two miles eastward to where the ruins of a bridge still spanned part of the stream . Girders just below the water 's surface made it possible to clamber across , she said , and there had not been a guard at that point for some months . The boys bade the good woman a very grateful good-by , and found the crossing much easier than they had expected to find it . Soon they were plodding on by starlight , and by midnight had reached , unmolested , a road that seemed to lead due north . They went around all villages , and learned to consider dogs a nuisance in so doing . At first they were unduly nervous . Faint moonlight played strange games with their fancies .