midnight
`` Girls must play the very deuce with a man if he ever lets them get on his mind , '' he mused . `` I see right now where a fellow about my size and complexion had better watch out . '' But he smiled afterward , as if he did not consider the matter very serious , after all . At midnight , the Peaceful Hart ranch lay broodily quiet under its rock-rimmed bluff . Down in the stable the saddle-horses were but formless blots upon the rumpled bedding in their stalls -- except Huckleberry , the friendly little pinto with the white eyelashes and the blue eyes , and the great , liver-colored patches upon his sides , and the appetite which demanded food at unseasonable hours , who was now munching and nosing industriously in the depths of his manger , and making a good deal of noise about it . Outside , one of the milch cows drew a long , sighing breath of content with life , lifted a cud in mysterious , bovine manner , and chewed dreamily . Somewhere up the bluff a bobcat squalled among the rocks , and the moon , in its dissipated season of late rising , lifted itself indolently up to where it could peer down upon the silent ranch .