nearly six o'clock in the evening
He asked a few questions and then resumed : `` As you got the stock started , they 'll have swum across ; but we ca n't round them up until it 's light . There 's a deserted shack not far off , and I guess we 'll head for it . '' The constable agreed ; and , mounting when they had got out of the timber , they rode off through the rain . It was nearly six o'clock in the evening when George and his companions , who had spent part of the day looking for the straying stock , rode up to the Grant homestead through a vast stretch of grain . This grew on the rich black soil they call `` gumbo '' in the West ; but here and there a belt of dark-colored summer fallow checkered the strong green of the wheat and oats . Though he clung to the one-crop system , Alan Grant was careful of his land . The fine brick house and range of smart wooden buildings , the costly implements , which included a gasoline tractor-plow , all indicated prosperity , and George recognized that the rugged-faced man beside him had made a marked success of his farming .