midnight
On every side lofty hills enclosed the valley , heavily timbered to their crests ; and through the intervale the rill ran , dashing out of the pass and away into that level , wooded strip to the fern-glade which lay midway between the height of land and Catharines-town ; and there joined the large stream which flowed north . I could see in the darkness little of the secret and hidden valley called Yndaia , only the heights silhouetted against the stars , a vague foreground sheeted with mist , and the dark little house standing there all alone under the stars . All night long the great tiger-owls yelped and hallooed across the valley ; all night the spectral whip-poor-will whispered its husky , frightened warning . And long after midnight a tiny bird awoke and sang monotonously for an hour or more . Awaiting an attack from Catharines-town at any moment , we dared not make a fire or even light a torch . Rotten trunks which had fallen across the stream we dragged out and piled up across the mouth of the pass to make a defence ; but we could do no more than that ; and , our efforts ended , my Indians sat in a circle cross-legged , quietly hooping and stretching their freshly taken scalps by the dim light of the stars , and humming their various airs of triumph in low , contented , and purring voices . All laboured under subdued excitement , the brief and almost silent slaughter in the ferns having thoroughly aroused them .