three in the afternoon
After being thoroughly ducked by means of a forked pole in the hands of a gentleman detailed for that purpose , they are allowed to clamber up an incline into a corral and dry or die , as the state of their constitutions may decree . If you ever caught an able-bodied , two-year-old mutton by the hind legs and felt the 750 volts of kicking that he can send through your arm seventeen times before you can hurl him into the vat , you will , of course , hope that he may die instead of dry . But this is merely to explain why Bud Oakley and I gladly stretched ourselves on the bank of the near-by charco after the dipping , glad for the welcome inanition and pure contact with the earth after our muscle-racking labors . The flock was a small one , and we finished at three in the afternoon ; so Bud brought from the morral on his saddle horn , coffee and a coffeepot and a big hunk of bread and some side bacon . Mr. Mills , the ranch owner and my old friend , rode away to the ranch with his force of Mexican trabajadores . While the bacon was frizzling nicely , there was the sound of horses ' hoofs behind us . Bud 's six-shooter lay in its scabbard ten feet away from his hand .