midnight
Watering his animals from a bucket previously filled at the spigot of a big water keg built into his wagon the professor hitched up and pressed on to his destination . Darkness came on , but still he drove steadily forward , seeking the shelter he knew he could find in the lee of the barren hills . `` Going to be a hummer and no mistake , '' he commented half aloud ; `` good thing-it-didn ' t catch me out in the middle of the alkali or Red Bill and his cronies might have had a new lease of life . '' It was close upon midnight when the professor found a spot to his liking , and by that time the first desultory puffs of the coming storm were sighing in the nooks and crannies of the barren hills . He tethered his team , gave them their hay in the shelter of the wagon , watered them and then , after a good-night pipe , prepared to turn in . He woke from a troubled doze to find the wind rocking the wagon within which he slept . `` Wonder what kind of weather the ponies are making of it ? ''