noon
`` Babe , '' a direct contrast to his brother , being thick-necked , stumpy and dark , had not failed to garner his share of the rich harvest . From his station behind the long counter , which was made of four heavy planks supported on barrels at either end , he had poured strange mixtures into beer mugs and exchanged them for good government coin . When he was not performing his part as bartender , he was scraping illy timed tunes upon a fiddle . It was he who was left in charge when , shortly after noon , his brother awoke , swallowed some whisky and armed himself with a brace of pistols . Then , with no word to the few loungers in the saloon , the latter set out , following the road that led up the river to the ferry-landing . At the cut , he climbed the bank at a leisurely pace and continued his way eastward , making straight across the snow toward the squat shack of the Lancasters . His approach was instantly marked .