noon
It looks mighty suspicious . You see she got up an awful lot of side when I told her I did n't reckon to run a smelting furnace in a wooden hotel with the thermometer at one hundred in the office , and I reckon it was just an excuse for getting off in a hurry . '' But the continued delay in Stacy 's promised telegram had begun to work upon Demorest 's usual equanimity , and he scarcely listened in his anxiety for his old partner . He knew that Stacy should have arrived in San Francisco by noon . He had almost determined to take the next train from the Divide when two horsemen dashed into the courtyard . There was the usual stir on the veranda and rush for news , but the two new arrivals turned out to be Barker , on a horse covered with foam , and a dashing , elegantly dressed stranger on a mustang as carefully groomed and as spotless as himself . Demorest instantly recognized Jack Hamlin .