noon
While the Bostonians endeavoured to steal what they could , and the landlord was beating his negroes , the only parties upon whom he could vent his fury , our companions succeeded in recovering their horses , and at break of day , without any loss but the gold watch of the doctor , which had probably been stolen from him during his sleep , we started for the last day 's journey which we had to make in Texas . As we rode away , nothing remained of Texan Boston except three patches of white ashes , and a few half-burnt logs , nor do I know if that important city has ever been rebuilt . We were now about twenty miles from the Red River , and yet this short distance proved to be the most difficult travelling we had experienced for a long while . We had to cross swamps , lagoons , and canebrakes , in which our horses were bogged continually ; so that at noon , and after a ride of six hours , we had only gained twelve miles . We halted upon a dry knoll , and there , for the first time since the morning , we entered into conversation ; for , till then , we had been too busy scrutinizing the ground before our horses ' feet . I had a great deal to say both to Gabriel and to Roche ; we were to part the next morning , -- they to return to the Comanches and the Shoshones , I to go on to the Mormons , and perhaps to Europe . I could not laugh at the doctor 's _ bon mots _ , for my heart was full ; till then , I had never felt how long intercourse , and sharing the same privations and dangers , will attach men to each other ; and the perspective of a long separation rendered me gloomier and gloomier , as the time we still had to pass together became shorter .