nearly midnight
And so they jogged along perhaps twenty minutes more , and then there was a sudden splutter and plunge and stumble ahead , a sharp pull on the traces , a marvelously quick jerk back on the reins that threw the wheel team on their haunches , and thereby saved the `` outfit , '' for when men and matches were hurried to the front the lead mules were discovered kicking and splashing in a mud hole . They were not only off the road by a dozen yards , but over a bank two feet high . And this last pound broke the back of Burleigh 's obstinacy . It was nearly midnight anyway . The best thing to be done was unhitch , unsaddle and bivouac until the gray light of dawn came peering over the eastward prairie , which in that high latitude and `` long-day '' month would be soon after three . Then they could push on to Reno . Not until nearly eight o'clock in the morning , therefore , did they heave in sight of the low belt of dingy green that told of the presence of a stream still long miles away ; and here , knowing himself to be out of danger , the major bade the weary escort march in at a walk while he hurried on .