about eight o'clock Wednesday morning
`` You go to bed now before you get me aggravated . '' Judith tossed her head but obediently retired to her corner of the room , undressed and crawled into her bed . Douglas was not long in following her example . It was about eight o'clock Wednesday morning and twenty below zero when the mail buckboard driven by Douglas took the rising trail from Black Gorge eastward over the Mesa Pass . The snow was heavy and the trail only indifferently opened . To add to the difficulties , Scott had hitched Polly , a half-broken mule , to the stage in place of the mare who had gone lame . James , the remaining horse , was steady , however , and Douglas had only a moderate amount of trouble until the long steep grade up to the Pass began .