midnight
Secotan was , he knew , a man of powerful magic , but he could not forget that there was a look in his eyes and a kindliness in his tone that seemed human , after all . Must he suffer and die there , without help , merely because he was greater and wiser than the rest ? Or , when death came close and the host of unearthly beings gathered about him , would he not feel it of comfort to have a living friend by his side ? It was long past midnight and in the black darkness that comes before day , before the boy came to final resolution . He crawled out from under the shelter of his lodge and slipped noiselessly through the sleeping camp . Every rustle in the grass , every stirring leaf in the thicket made him jump and shiver , yet he kept steadily on . The sharp outline of Secotan 's pointed lodge poles stood out against the stars , halfway up the shoulder of the hill .