nine o'clock
`` I see , '' Bob said to himself , thinking it over that evening , `` this is the first of Jenkins ' schemes . They are going to make Chinamen afraid to work for me . Well , Noah and I can manage until I can hire some Americans . '' At nine o'clock it was yet too hot to sleep , and Bob too restless to sit still . He got up and started out to walk . Without any definite intention he turned down the road south . He had gone about half a mile and thought of turning back when he saw something in the road ahead -- something white .