eight o'clock
For a long time he wrote , and when he had done he sealed the writing , put the envelope and the skull together in a box , and tied the whole with babiche string . On the outside he fastened another note to Breed , the factor , in which he explained that he and Bucky Nome had found it necessary to leave that very night for the West . And he heavily underscored the lines in which he directed the factor to see that the box was delivered to Mrs. Colonel Becker , and that , as he valued the honor and the friendship of the service , and especially of Philip Steele , all knowledge of it should be kept from the colonel himself . It was eight o'clock when he went out into the night with his pack upon his back . He grunted approval when he found it was snowing , for the track of himself and Nome would be covered . Through the thickening gloom the two or three lights in the factor 's home gleamed like distant stars . One of them was brighter than the others , and he knew that it came from the rooms which Breed had fitted up for the colonel and his wife .