midnight
Mounting then , Andrew Seldon set off on his lonely and perilous mission . He ascended the hazardous trail , stripped his horse of his trappings upon reaching the deadly cliff which he had to pass around , and got safely by with the animal . Then he brought his saddle and trappings around , led the horse to the top of the cañon rim , and , mounting , set off for Fort Faraway , taking the trail that must lead him by the deserted camp where he had killed Black-heart Bill in a duel , and where the desperado rested in his grave after his tumultuous life of evil . By rapid riding he reached the deserted camp soon after midnight , and , dismounting , prepared to go into camp . There was the best of water and grass there , and , to be merciful to his horse , Andrew Seldon did not allow his own feelings to cause him to camp elsewhere when the animal would be the sufferer . Having watered his horse and staked him out to feed , he sat down upon a log near the wickiup and ate his cold supper quietly . Then he lighted his pipe and began to smoke with a strange calmness of mien , when it is remembered that there , within a few yards of him , at the base of the quaking aspen whose white trunk looked ghostly in the moonlight , was the grave of the man he had killed , the man who had been his boyhood friend , and afterward his bitterest foe .