midnight
Six months before he was the personification of all that was lavish , hospitable , good-natured , extravagant . Everybody was apparently welcome to the best he had . Then came the collapse , his arrest , his flight , his capture and confinement , his laughing defiance of his accusers until he found how much more they knew than he supposed , his metaphorical prostration at the feet of his judges , his humility , repentance , suffering and sacrifice , his pledge of future atonement , his protestations of love for his long-suffering wife , his surrender of his valuables for her benefit , his meekness of mien until the court had concluded his case and gone . Then , his sudden resumption of bold , truculent , defiant manner , his midnight breach of arrest , which had leaked out through the guard that was promptly sent forth to fetch him in ; then his demand for the return of his property , and his furious outburst on learning that Loring had taken him at his word and sent it without delay by the safest possible hands . That proved an exciting day . The adjutant 's message had temporarily awed and quieted the man , but toward three P. M. the mail carrier arrived from the Gila with his sack of letters and papers . He reported having been stopped only five miles out from Sancho 's by masked men who quickly examined his big leather bag , silently pointed to a curious mark , a dab of paint that must have gotten on it while he was there at the ranch , and sent him ahead without a word being spoken .