about ten
o'clock
Hatton himself ventured down to examine the water-barrels , and found not more than half a barrel of dirty , brackish , ill-flavored fluid in all . The darkness grew black and impenetrable . Heavy clouds overspread the heavens , and a moaning wind crept out of the mountain-passes of the Big Horn range and came sweeping down across the treeless prairie . Every now and then they could hear the galloping beat of pony-hoofs , and knew that they were closely invested in their hillock citadel , and at last , about ten o'clock , a sergeant who had been sent with a couple of men to see what was going on at the wagons , came running back breathless . The wagons were gone ! Every one of them had been run off by the Indians under cover of the wind and darkness ; and presently , half a mile over to the south-east , a glare of flame arose , and the white tops became for a moment visible , and dancing , capering naked forms around them , and then the cotton duck attracted the eager , fiery tongues , and in another moment the flames seemed to leap high in the air , but the performers in the aboriginal ballet scurried for shelter . The soldiers sighted their rifles for nine hundred yards , and the little hill blazed and sputtered half a minute with a rapid discharge that sent leaden messengers whistling through the burning wagon-covers and humming about the ears of the revellers .