about one o'clock
As near as I can make out , it is twenty-five miles from the nearest town , just a rough mining camp , with very few people aside from the miners . '' `` Why , '' replied Rutherford , `` I think that would be fine ; anyhow , I 'll try it if you have no objections ; it will be a change anyway . '' And so it was decided that Rutherford should extend his pleasure trip into the mining camp , and Houston was pleased with the arrangement , for , notwithstanding the work which he had planned , he expected to find many lonely hours and monotonous days , little dreaming of the interests that awaited him , or that he was entering upon the most eventful portion of his life . At about one o'clock the train arrived at Silver City , a town of about fifteen thousand inhabitants . The young men , as they left the train , caught a glimpse of the indefatigable Mr. Wilson as he was boarding a street car in company with two intended victims which he had already secured . They took a carriage , and as they were whirled rapidly through the steep , narrow streets on their way to the hotel , the little city seemed to them like a thoroughly typical , western , mining town . The town was surrounded by mountains , and prospect holes and abandoned placer diggings could be seen in every direction , while interspersed among the business blocks of brick and stone , were tiny cabins , built of logs , -- all relics of the earlier days when Silver City was but a large mining camp .