eight o'clock before
`` I presume your funds are there . '' `` It was because the quartermaster would _ not _ open it at any moment that I took them out and placed them elsewhere , '' hotly answered Field , and not until then did Webb remember that there had been quite a fiery talk , followed by hyperborean estrangement , between his two staff officers , and now , as the only government safe at the post was in the office of the quartermaster , and the only other one was Bill Hay 's big `` Phoenix '' at the store , it dawned upon the major that it was there Mr. Field had stowed his packages of currency -- a violation of orders pure and simple -- and that was why he could not produce the money on the spot . Webb reflected . If he let Ray start at dawn and held Field back until the trader was astir , it might be eight o'clock before the youngster could set forth . By that time Ray would be perhaps a dozen miles to the northward , and with keen-eyed Indian scouts noting the march of the troop and keeping vigilant watch for possible stragglers , it might be sending the lad to certain death , for Plodder had said in so many words the Sioux about him had declared for war , had butchered three ranchmen on the Dry Fork , had fired on and driven in his herd guards and wood choppers , and , what started with Lane Wolf 's big band , would spread to Stabber 's little one in less than no time , and what spread to Stabber 's would soon reach a host of the Sioux . Moreover , there was another reason . It would give Field opportunity for further conference with -- inmates of the trader 's household , and the major had his own grave reasons for seeking to prevent that .