four in the morning
`` Beautiful , beautiful , '' Shorty moaned with delight . He crept over noiselessly from the peep-hole . `` They 've got their heads together , an ' I can almost see 'em talkin ' . '' And from then until four in the morning , at fifteen-minute intervals , the seeming of a bucket was hoisted on the windlass that creaked and ran around on itself and hoisted nothing . Then their visitors departed , and Smoke and Shorty went to bed . After daylight , Shorty examined the moccasin-marks . `` Big Bill Saltman was one of them , '' he concluded .