nine in the morning
They found much of the corral in ruins and one end of the rancho badly scorched . `` The wife of my brother , '' with Pancha , and that ceremonious copy of the Castilian himself had disappeared , but Sancho was still there , a much wronged man , and Pedro and José and Concho and a decrepit mule or two , all under the surly surveillance of Sergeant Feeny and half a dozen troopers whose comrades were afield chasing banditti through the deserts and mountains , while those who were detailed to remain spent long , anxious hours watching over and striving to soothe a young officer delirious from injuries to the head and resultant fever . Loring a sick man , indeed , when the surgeon reached him ; but poor Blake , wearing himself down to skin and bone in fruitless chase , would gladly have been in his place . The stage which he and his men had rushed to rescue was actually out there to the east , as Pancha had declared , `` held up '' among some little sand dunes , but it bore neither passengers nor treasure , and what on earth the robbers should have detained him for nearly twenty miles east of Gila Bend -- held him in the hot sun from nine in the morning until late in the afternoon , then sent him on again , only to be once more `` rounded to '' with a furious chorus of yells and volleyings of pistols when within only two miles of Sancho 's , that bewildered Jehu could not imagine . The marvel of it was that , though the old stage was `` riddled like a sieve , '' as he said , `` and bullets flew round me like a swarm of buzzin ' bees , not one of 'em more 'n just nipped me and raised a blister in the skin . '' Indeed , even those abrasions were indistinguishable , though Jake solemnly believed in their existence . Then another queer thing !