eight o'clock
At nine o'clock the sky began to whiten above the long , bare ridge of the side-hill cut . At half past , the edge of the moon 's disk clove the sky-line , and the shadow of the ridge crept down among the willows and tule-beds of the bottom . At ten the shadow had shrunk ; it lay black on the ditch-bank , but the whispering treetops below were turning in silver light that flickered along the cow-path and caught the still eye of a dark , shallow pool among the tules . Nancy had chosen this night for a stroll to the bridge , where Travis might be expected to pass , any time between eight o'clock and moonrise . Instead of Travis came a man whom she recognized as one of the watchmen from a lower division . He saluted her , after the custom of the country , claiming nothing on personal grounds but the privilege to look rather hard at the girlish figure silhouetted against the water . It was yet early enough for sky-gleams to linger on still pools , or to color the wimpling reaches of the ditch .