noon
And the friends who watched them go heaved signs of relief , for the reprisals evidently were to be postponed for a while . Juan Alvarez had not been in San Felippe since Dick Martin left , which meant for over a month . Martin was down the river looking for a man who did not wish to be found ; and some said that Martin cared nothing about international boundaries when he wanted any one real bad . And there was that geologist who wore blue glasses and was always puttering around in the canyon and hammering chips of rock off the steep walls ; he must have slipped one noon , because his body was found on a flat boulder at the edge of the stream . Manuel had found it and wanted to be paid for his trouble in bringing it to town -- but Manuel was a fool . Who , indeed , would pay good money for a dead Gringo , especially after he was dead ? And there were three cow-punchers holding a herd of 6-X cattle up north , an hour or so from the town .