four in the afternoon
As I leaned forward I kept one hand fixed on the neck of the buffalo next me , and I shouted to Rube to do the same , so as we could make a shift to jump on to the buffalo 's back if our horses fell ; but , I tell you , I was beginning to fear that we should n't see any way out of it . What with us in the middle , and the Utes yelling behind them , the herd war fairly mad with fright ; and there war no saying where they would go to , for , you know , a herd of buffaloes , when fairly stampeded , will go clean over a precipice a hundred yards high , and pile themselves up dead at the foot till there is not one left . It war a bad fix , you bet , for I war sure that the Utes war after us , and not after the buffaloes , for they kept on , though they could soon have killed as many of the herd as they wanted . It was may be four in the afternoon when the chase commenced , and so it went on till it was dark . The buffaloes war going nigh as fast as when we started , but the horses could scarce keep their legs ; I was sure they could n't run much longer , so I says to Rube , ` We must get out of this , or else we shall be done for . ' `` So we sets to work a-probing the buffalo with our knives again . They started on ahead as hard as they could , bursting a way through the crowd .