midnight
It was little wonder , then , that the first ruddy flash across a sky that had been sunny with peace for thirty years and more thrilled him like an electric charge from the very clouds . The next best thing to a noble life was a death that was noble , and that was possible to any man in war . One war had taken away -- another might give back again ; and his chance was come at last . It was midnight now , and far across the fields came the swift faint beat of a horse 's hoofs on the turnpike . A moment later he could hear the hum of wheels -- it was his little brother coming home ; nobody had a horse that could go like that , and nobody else would drive that way if he had . Since the death of their father , thirteen years after the war , he had been father to the boy , and time and again he had wondered now why he could not have been like that youngster . Life was an open book to the boy -- to be read as he ran .