nine o'clock
before
`` Thunderation , no ! Nobody but country jakes call it a cell , '' said Anderson in fine scorn . The three prisoners scowled at him so fiercely and snarled so vindictively when they asked him if they were to be starved to death , that poor Anderson hurried home and commanded his wife to pack `` a baskit of bread and butter an ' things fer the prisoners . '' It was nine o'clock before he could make up his mind to venture back to the calaboose with his basket . He spent the intervening hours in telling Rosalie and Bonner about the shocking incident at the jail and in absorbing advice from the clear-headed young man from Boston . `` I 'd like to go with you to see those fellows , Mr. Crow , '' was Bonner 's rueful lament . `` But the doctor says I must be quiet until this confounded thing heals a bit .