midnight
But their legs were young and their brains eager ; in little over an hour they were in sight of the Mission . It looked very white and ghostly in the pale blaze of the moon , a huge mass , full of prayer and discontent . Close beside it , but without the walls , the Indians slept in the rancheria , quiescent enough , for they had no Anastacio . At midnight the great bells in the tower had rung out , filling the valley with their sweet silver clamour ; but as the boys approached and skirted the wall , some distance to the right , the Mission might have been as lifeless as it is this year , in its desertion and decay . The hills were a mile behind . The Mission , like all of its kind , stood on a broad open , that no hostile tribe might approach unseen . Cows and horses lay in their first heavy sleep , their breathing hardly ruffling the profound stillness .