midnight
There was never a halt , the reverberations of our caravan seeming to reëcho through the Gap , resounding forward and back , until our progress must have been audible at Horsehead Crossing . But the expected never happens , and within an hour we reached the summit of the plain , where the country was open and clear and an attack could have been easily repelled . Four fresh mules had been harnessed in for the night , and striking a free gait , we put twenty miles of that arid stretch behind us before the moon rose . A short halt was made after midnight , for a change of teams and saddle horses , and then we continued our hurried travel until near dawn . Some indistinct objects in our front caused us to halt . It looked like a caravan , and we hailed it without reply . Several of us dismounted and crept forward , but the only sign of life was a dull , buzzing sound which seemed to issue from an outfit of parked wagons .