about ten o'clock
Every once in a while he would station the major at the safe , which had been hauled into the easternmost of the rooms that opened to the front instead of on the corral , and , revolver in hand , would patrol the premises , never failing to stop at a certain window behind which he believed Moreno to be lurking , to warn that impulsive Greaser not to show his head outside his room if he did n't want it blown off his shoulders ; never failing on his return to stir up both recumbent forms with angry foot , and then to shower in equal portions cold water and hot imprecations upon them . To Pedro he had intrusted the duty of caring for the horses of his prostrate comrades . Every faculty he possessed was on the alert , watching for the faintest sign of treachery or hostility from within , listening with dread but stern determination for the first sound of hoof-beats from without . It must have been about ten o'clock when , leaving Mr. Dawes , the clerk , seated in the dark interior beside the safe , Feeny stepped forth to make another round , stopped to look at Mullan and his partner , now beginning to twitch uneasily and moan and toss in their drunken sleep , and then turned to seek the paymaster . Whatsoever lights Moreno had been accustomed to burn by way of lure or encouragement to belated travellers , all was gloom to-night . The bar was silence and darkness . The bare east room adjoining the corral was tenanted now only by the clerk and the precious iron box of `` greenbacks . ''