midnight
Atsu assented bluntly , and after that if they talked it was of impersonal things and in a desultory manner . When night came Atsu called his attendants and had the weary old man put to bed in a curtained corner of the house . For himself there was no sleep . At midnight there came the beat of hoofs on the dust-muffled ways of Pa-Ramesu . A sentry knocked at the door of the commander and announced a visitor . Atsu , who still sat under the unextinguished reed light , greeted the new-comer with an exclamation of concern . The man was covered with dust , his dress was torn and bloody , his right hand swathed in cloths , and his lip , right cheek and eye were swollen and discolored .