midnight
The daring of the raider was his safeguard . Lablache knew their destination . They were traveling southward , and he felt that their object was his own ranch . That midnight drive was one long nightmare to the unfortunate captive . He had been thrown , sprawling , into the iron-railed `` carryall '' platform at the back of the buckboard , and lay on the nut-studded slats , where he was jolted and bumped about like the proverbial pea on a drum . When the raider changed his direction , and turned off the trail on to the open prairie , the horrors of the prisoner 's position were intensified a hundredfold . Alone , there was insufficient room for the suffering man in the limited space of the `` carryall , '' but beside him sat , or rather crouched , a burly Breed , ready at a moment 's notice to quash any attempt at escape on the part of the wretched money-lender .