midnight
He 's the feller that 's put us onto this , by cripes , and he 's the feller that 's going to pick his claim first . '' Chip did not need to sanction that assertion . The whole Happy Family agreed unanimously that it should be so , except Slim , who yielded a bit unwillingly . Till midnight and after , they bent heads over the plat and made plans for the future and took no thought whatever of the difficulties that might lie before them . For the coming colony they had no pity , and for the balked schemes of the Homeseekers ' Syndicate no compunctions whatever . So Andy Green , having seen his stratagem well on the way to success , and feeling once more the well-earned confidence of his fellows , slept soundly that night in his own bed , serenely sure of the future . Letters went speeding to Irish and Jack Bates , absent members of the Happy Family of the Flying U ; letters that explained the situation with profane completeness , set forth briefly the plan of the proposed pool , and which importuned them to come home or make haste to the nearest land-office and file upon certain quarter-sections therein minutely described .