ten
A.M.
So again he took no counsel with Wickham , but issued instructions in the name of the department commander and ordered them carried out forthwith . Then it transpired that only two couriers were fit to go . Thereupon , the commanding officer of the one cavalry troop at the post was ordered to detail three non-commissioned officers , with a brace of troopers apiece , as bearers of despatches to Date Creek , Wickenberg , Sandy and the reservation , while Sanchez , the Mexican-Apache Mercury , was ordered to hasten back to Almy by way of the Mazatzal . It was then but ten A.M. , and to the annoyance of the adjutant-general , Sanchez shook his black mane and said something that sounded like _ hasta la noche _ -- he would n't start till night . Asked why , the interpreter said he feared Apache Tontos , and being assured by the adjutant-general that no Tonto could be west of the Verde , intimated his conviction of the officer 's misinformation by the only sign he knew as bearing on the matter -- that of the forked tongue , which called for no interpreter , as it concisely said , You lie . Sanchez meant neither insult nor insolence , but the adjutant-general regarded it as both , ordered another sergeant and two men got ready at once to ride to Almy , and bade the interpreter take Sanchez to the post guard-house and turn him over for discipline to the officer of the day . The sergeant started forty minutes later , with his two men at his back , and just thirty-five minutes behind Sanchez , who left the station on the spur of the moment , and the interpreter with a cleft weasand .