one O'clock
He sent a hundred-and-fifty-word message to Dewitt of the Great Western Company in Los Angeles , explaining with perfect frankness the situation and his determination to get out after the robbers , and made it plain also that he would not expect salary for the time he spent in the chase . He ended by saying tersely , `` My reputation and standing of company here at stake , '' and signed his name in a hasty scrawl that made the operator scratch his ear reflectively with his pencil when he had counted the words down to the signature . After that , Luck gave every ounce of his energy and every bit of his brain to the outfitting of the expedition . So well did he accomplish the task that by one O'clock that night a low-voiced company of men rode away from a livery stable in the heart of the town , leading four pack-horses and heading as straight as might be for the bridge . They met no one ; they saw scarcely a light in any of the windows that they passed . A chill wind crept up the river so that they buttoned their coats when the hoofbeats of the horses sounded hollow on the bridge . Out through the lane that leads to Atrisco , which slept in the stolid blackness of low adobe houses with flat roofs and tiny windows , they rode at a trot .