Midnight
And though Midnight was not insensible to the compliment Pete had paid him by picking him from the bunch for these long excursions to the Southland deserts , he missed the bunch . They had been together a long time , the bunch ; Pete had brought them from the Block Ranch , over in New Mexico . They were getting on in years , and so was Pete . Midnight mused over his youthful days -- the dust , the flashing horns , the shouting and the excitement of old round-ups . It is a true telling that thoughts in no way unlike these buzzed in the rider 's head as a usual thing . But to-day he had other things to think of . With Kid Mitchell , his partner , Pete had lately stumbled upon a secret of fortune -- a copper hill ; a warty , snubby little gray hill in an insignificant cluster of little gray hills .