four o'clock in the morning
`` You go to Hell ! '' remarked Speaker joyfully . `` Do n't call yore ranch names , '' admonished Jimmie with a grin , and fainted . By four o'clock in the morning the fifteen hundred head of cattle had crossed the ford of the Big Horn and were bedded down on the other side . When this hazardous business had been completed , Bud Larkin ordered the sheep brought up and kept on the eastern bank among the cool grass of the bottoms . The captive rustlers , under guard , were being held until daylight , when , it had been decided , they would be taken to the almost deserted Bar T ranch , and kept there until further action could be determined on in regard to them . When dawn finally came Bud looked at the stolid faces of the men , and recognized most of them as having belonged to the party that had so nearly ended his earthly career .