Meaning of the sentence from Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Was"

Dirkovitch, who had devoted himself steadily to the brandy—the terrible brandy aforementioned—did not understand, nor did the expurgated translations offered to him at all convey the point. Decidedly the native officer’s was the speech of the evening, and the clamor might have continued to the dawn had it not been broken by the noise of a shot without that sent every man feeling at his defenseless left side.

From Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Was"

I am unable to unable to understand why 'without' word has been used in the sentence. If 'without' is not used, the sentence makes perfect sense to me. Could someone elaborate on this?

Without is used here in the intransitive sense “outside”. Within, correspondingly, may be used for “inside”.

Today these are obsolescent if not downright obsolete uses, but were quite common from Middle English into the early years of the twentieth century.