midnight
But I did n't have long to meditate on his color scheme , for he calmly announced that a ranchman named McMein had been murdered by a drunken cowboy in a wage dispute , and the murderer had been seen heading for the Cochrane Ranch . He -LRB- the M. P. -RRB- inquired if I would object to his searching the buildings . Would I object ? I most assuredly did not , for little chills began to play up and down my spinal column , and I was n't exactly in love with the idea of having an escaped murderer crawling out of a hay-stack at midnight and cutting my throat . The ranchman McMein had been killed on Saturday , and the cowboy had been kept on the run for two days . As I was being told this I tried to remember where Dinky-Dunk had stowed away his revolver-holster and his hammerless ejector and his Colt repeater . But I made that handsome young man in the scarlet coat come right into the shack and begin his search by looking under the bed , and then going down the cellar .