half past eleven
`` And it 's little I mind a wettin ' , '' Hall laughed , as he strode away among the trees . Jerry 's prediction concerning rain was more than fulfilled . By ten o'clock the pines were swaying and moaning , the cabin windows rattling , and the rain driving by in fierce squalls . At half past eleven he kindled a fire , and promptly at the stroke of twelve sat down to his dinner . No out-of-doors for him that day , he decided , when he had washed the few dishes and put them neatly away ; and he wondered how wet Hall was and whether he had succeeded in picking up a deer . At one o'clock there came a knock at the door , and when he opened it a man and a woman staggered in on the breast of a great gust of wind . They were Mr. and Mrs. Spillane , ranchers , who lived in a lonely valley a dozen miles back from the river .