midnight
It was the way of a woman ; it was no less the way of a man . It was thus that the `` Heart of the World '' players came to fulfil their engagement at San Juan upon a Saturday night . This was the liveliest camp in all that mountain region , a frantic , feverish , mushroom city of tents and shacks , sprawling frame business blocks , and a few ugly brick abominations , perched above the golden rocks of the Vila Valley , bounded on one side by the towering cliffs , on the other by the pitiless desert . In those days San Juan recognized no material distinction between midnight and noon-day . All was glitter , glow , life , excitement along the streets ; the gloomy overhanging mountains were pouring untold wealth into her lap , while vice and crime , ostentation and lawlessness , held high carnival along the crowded , straggling byways . The exultant residents existed to-day in utter carelessness of the morrow , their one dominant thought gold , their sole acknowledged purpose those carnal pleasures to be purchased with it . Everything was primitive , the animal yet in full control , the drinking , laughing , fighting animal , filled with passion and blood-lust , worshipping bodily strength , and governed by the ideals of a frontier society wherein the real law hung dangling at the hip .