six o'clock
`` If you want to read this -- '' `` Thank you , '' Van interrupted , taking the letter and thrusting it at once in his pocket . `` Thank Mr. Kent for his courtesies , in my behalf . '' He turned and rode away . Before six o'clock that morning , while Van was arousing the blacksmith , the reservation madness broke its bounds . Twenty-five hundred gold-blinded men made the rush for coveted grounds . The night had been one long revel of drinking , gambling , and excitement . No one had slept in the reservation town -- for no one had dared .