about midnight
It had taken him two weeks to reach the pocket -LRB- he had managed to keep close run of the days -RRB- ; it would probably take him fully as long to return , and so he would fill Mr. Parsons ' contract anyway . And so it was settled that he was to go home ; but there 's many a slip between determining upon a thing and doing it . He finished his coffee and bacon , led the horse down to the spring , from which he had scraped the leaves , to give him a drink , and rolled himself up in his blanket to go to sleep with his ready rifle safe beside him . How long he slept he did not know , but he was awakened about midnight by a sound he had never heard before . It came from his horse , but it was n't a neigh : it was the sound of fear , and made the cold chills creep all over him . He started up with his rifle in his hand , but did not have time to get off the blanket . Another shriek , which sounded like somebody in fearful bodily agony , came from the bushes , and the next minute the horse was on the ground and struggling in the grasp of some animal or thing which Tom could not remember to have seen or heard of before .