nearly noon
called I ; `` and how 's your shoulder this morning ? '' `` It 's past time fur a start , and nigh upon noon . My shoulder 's putty sore , but I kin git along all right with it . '' I sprang to my seat , and found it nearly noon ; indeed , so late that Jerry advised remaining encamped until the following morning , although Magoffin 's train had been gone some hours . After dinner , Hal , Ned , and myself saddled up for a ride over the plain in search of antelope , and had gone some three or four miles from camp , when Ned called my attention to a horseman in the distance , leisurely riding along , almost diagonally to our own course . We hastened forward so as to intercept him ; but , seeing us approach , he turned and rode towards us . He was a Mexican , tall and gaunt , mounted upon a superb black mustang stallion .