four o'clock
It went through him like strong liquor . He warmed some beans and fried himself a slice of bacon , sopping up the grease with a cold biscuit left over from the day before . Again he slept for a few hours . He had wound his watch mechanically and it showed him four o'clock when he took up the trail once more . In Seattle and San Francisco people were still asleep and darkness was heavy over the land . Here it had been day for a long time , ever since the summer sun , hidden for a while behind the low , distant hills , had come blazing forth again in a saddle between two peaks . Gordon had reduced his pack by discarding a blanket , the frying-pan , and all the clothing he was not wearing .