one o'clock
What with having to send a large portion of his command forward on the Yuma road so as to provide comparatively fresh horsemen to accompany the stage with its relays of mules , Blake found himself at reveille with just eighteen men all told , awaiting the coming of that anxiously-expected vehicle . He prayed that it might bring at least one or two officers from Grant or Bowie . He vainly sought another peep at or word with Pancha ; but , though Sancho was everywhere in evidence , grave , courteous , hospitable , imperturbable ; though one or two ranchmen rode in and out during the morning , and there was a little gathering , perhaps half a dozen of men and _ mozos _ , apparently awaiting the coming of the stage at noon , the women kept out of sight . At twelve the old lorgnette was brought to bear on the eastward trail , but , to the apparent surprise of the loungers , one o'clock came and no stage , and so did four and five and then Blake and Loring took counsel together in the seclusion of the willow copse , while their men , silent and observant , gathered about the horses thirty yards away , grooming and feeding and looking carefully to their shoeing , for there was portent on the desert air and symptoms of lively work ahead . At six came Sancho , oppressed with grievous anxiety as to the safety of the stage . There has been rumors of Apache raids to the east of Maricopa . Only three days before he had warned the caballeros -- the gentlemen of the court who were going back to Grant and Bowie , to be on their guard every inch of the way beyond the Wells , and now his heart was heavy .