midnight
Their instinct had told them that the steed was not ridden by a free hand ; they had seen that there was _ something amiss _ ; and in the hope of running down both horse and rider , they had followed with hungry howl . Another fact lent probability to this painful conjecture ; we knew that by the mesa were many wolves . The spring was the constant resort of ruminant animals , deer and antelopes ; the half-wild cattle of the _ ganaderos _ drank there , and the tottering calf oft became the prey of the coyote and his more powerful congener , the gaunt Texan wolf . There was still another reason why the place must of late have been the favourite prowl of these hideous brutes : the _ debris _ of our skirmish had furnished them with many a midnight banquet . They had ravened upon the blood of men and the flesh of horses , and they hungered for more . That they might succeed in running down the steed , cumbered as he was , was probable enough . Sooner or later , they would overtake him .