about five o'clock
Then they went into the town together , and slept that night in a wooden hotel . Their troubles were over , and , what was more , Wyllard , who pledged the rest to secrecy , fancied that what had become of the schooner would remain a mystery . Harvest had commenced at the Range , and the clashing binders were moving through the grain when Hawtrey sat one afternoon in Wyllard 's room at the Range . It was then about five o'clock , and every man belonging to the homestead was toiling bare-armed and grimed with dust among the yellow oats , but Hawtrey sat at a table gazing at the litter of papers in front of him with a troubled face . He wore a white shirt and store clothes , which was distinctly unusual in case of a Western farmer at harvest time , and Edmonds , the mortgage jobber , leaned back in a big chair quietly watching him . The latter had , as it happened , called at a singularly inconvenient time , and Hawtrey was anxious to get rid of him before the guests he expected arrived . It was Sally 's birthday , and since she took pleasure in simple festivities of any kind he had arranged to celebrate it at the Range .