about
midnight
Then one afternoon a great swarm of locusts found where they were and alighted upon them just as a westerly wind died out . The locusts remained long enough to eat up whatever grass there was left . All through the evening the Nez Percés had heard the harsh , tingling hum of those devourers , as they argued among themselves whether or not it were best to stay and dig for the roots of the grass . The wind came up suddenly and strongly about midnight , and the locusts decided to take advantage of it and sail away after better grass , but they did not leave any behind them . They set out for the nearest white settlements in hope of getting corn and apple-tree leaves , and all that sort of thing . The band of Nez Percés would have moved away the next morning under any circumstances , but when morning came they were in a terribly bad predicament . Not one of them carried a watch , or he might have known that it was about three o'clock , and very dark , when a worse disaster than the visit of the locusts took place .