midnight
A little later they entered the sharp-cut shadows beneath the trees and were swallowed in the darkness . With fixed eyes and close-shut lips , as doggedly , as inexorably as though he were a Nemesis hunting his enemy down , Hiram followed their footsteps across the stretch of moonlit open . Then , by and by , he also was in the shadow of the pines . Here , not a sound broke the midnight hush . His feet made no noise upon the resinous softness of the ground below . In that dead , pulseless silence he could distinctly hear the distant voices of Levi and his companion , sounding loud and resonant in the hollow of the woods . Beyond the woods was a cornfield , and presently he heard the rattling of the harsh leaves as the two plunged into the tasseled jungle .