eight o'clock
He had no appetite for breakfast , so he got out his touring car and drove away toward the north while Ragtown slept . Men were at work in the third camp that he reached , and here a little inquiry brought forth the information that Hooker had gone the way Drummond had feared . Now he drove fast along the road that followed the right of way , passing rapidly through camp after camp , until he was far from Ragtown . It was not yet eight o'clock when , far ahead , he saw a black horse galloping toward him . He had just run the car out upon the smooth , dark surface of one of the desert 's famous dry lakes , where almost nothing grew . The ground was level and hard as a dance floor , so he turned from the road and drove at right angles to it across the crusted soil . He drove fast , and by the time the rider reached the point in the road where Drummond first had seen him Drummond was so far away that Hiram could not recognize him or his car .