midnight
There was a merry twinkle of laughter in his blue eyes as , with lips solemn as an exhorter 's , he addressed the offending object . `` You brown rascal , you ! If it had n't be 'n for you , me an ' Buck might of made a hit with the lady , might n't we , Buck ? Scratch gravel , now you old reprobate , or we wo n't get to camp till midnight . '' `` Anyway , she ai n't no kin to the Wattses , '' he added reflectively , `` not an ' that clean , she ai n't . '' It was with a decided feeling of depression that Patty Sinclair approached the Watts ranch . Long before she reached the buildings an air of shiftless dilapidation was manifest in the ill-lined barbed wire fences whose rotting posts sagged drunkenly upon loosely strung wire .