nearly five o'clock in the afternoon
It took them five hours to do the twenty miles lying between the watering-trough and the edge of the hills . A large part of the last ten miles Hapgood did on foot , leading his astonished horse . And often he stopped to rest , squatting or lying full length on the ground . It was nearly five o'clock in the afternoon when at last they came to the second spring by the roadside . And here Hapgood sank down wearily , muttering colorlessly that he could not and would not go a step farther . And they were still forty miles to the nearest cabin and bed . Conniston unsaddled the two horses , watered them , and staked them out to crop the short , dry grass .