midnight
It is from thim that 's in higher quarters you 'll get your doom , an ' not from me , or , as I said afore , from any one here . Mark that ; but indeed you know it as well as I do , an ' I believe , Rouser , a good deal bether . '' Flanagan 's argument , to men who understood its dreadful import , was one before which almost every description of personal courage must quail . Persons were then present , Rouser Redhead among the rest , who had been sent upon some of those midnight missions , which contumacy against the system , when operating in its cruelty , had dictated . Persons of humane disposition , declining to act on these sanguinary occasions , are generally the first to be sacrificed , for individual life is nothing when obstructing the propagation of general principle . This truth , coming from Flanagan 's lips , they themselves , some of whom had executed its spirit , knew but too well . The difference , however , between their apprehension , so far as they were individually concerned , was not much ; Flanagan had the person to fear , and his opponents the principle .