two o'clock
He could catch the next train to the Three Boulders and ride thence to San Felipe . He hurriedly left the room , settled with the landlord , and galloped to the station . By the irony of circumstances the only horse available for that purpose was Mr. Hamlin 's own . By two o'clock he was at the Three Boulders , where he got a fast horse and galloped into San Felipe by four . As he descended the last slope through the fastnesses of pines towards the little valley overlooked in its remoteness and purely pastoral simplicity by the gold-seeking immigrants , -- its seclusion as one of the furthest northern Californian missions still preserved through its insignificance and the efforts of the remaining Brotherhood , who used it as an infirmary and a school for the few remaining Spanish families , -- he remembered how he once blundered upon it with the boy while hotly pursued by a hue and cry from one of the larger towns , and how he found sanctuary there . He remembered how , when the pursuit was over , he had placed the boy there under the padre 's charge . He had lied to his wife regarding the whereabouts of her son , but he had spoken truly regarding his free expenditure for the boy 's maintenance , and the good fathers had accepted , equally for the child 's sake as for the Church 's sake , the generous `` restitution '' which this coarse , powerful , ruffianly looking father was apparently seeking to make .