midnight
`` Three months later , when the snow was about gone , and we thought the time ripe for prospectin ' , I took my two men and an outfit and gave that blamed old creek a fair trial . We hustled and rustled to beat the band . We shovelled , panned , built dams , and worked like beavers in water above our knees . We moved our tents further up on the bank at midnight at the risin ' of the creek durin ' a hard rain -- but , egad ! after two weeks of that sort of thing , no gold could we find . Not a color ! We cursed and tore around something fierce among the Queen 's English , but it did not help matters a particle .