1:15
`` You need a drink , '' said the quartermaster to the engineer , noting again his pallid face . `` None , I thank you , '' said Loring briefly , and without another word he took himself straightway to Major Starke 's . At 12:30 when court reconvened the judge advocate went swiftly and methodically through his work , read the orders , propounded the usual questions , swore the court , took his own oath , read the charges and recorded the pleas without loss of a second of time or use of a superfluous word . At 1:15 the court stood adjourned _ sine die _ , leaving the president and judge advocate to finish and sign the record . By 3 P. M. five of its members , in the one `` four-mule '' road wagon belonging at Cooke , were speeding southward , hoping to catch the stage to take them to their posts lying far to the east . By midnight the record was well-nigh complete , and Loring , locking up the papers , stepped softly out into the starlight . Over across the contracted parade a lamp was burning dimly at the guard tents and several others flared at the brush and canvas shack of the sutler .