twelve o'clock
`` Gone over to the hospital with Mrs. Blake and the doctor , '' was the explanation , and these gentle-hearted women , it seems , were striving to do something to rouse the lad from the slough of despond which had engulfed him . That night `` Pink '' Marble , Hay 's faithful book-keeper and clerk for many a year , a one-armed veteran of the civil war , calling , as was his invariable custom when the trader was absent , to leave the keys of the safe and desks with Mrs. Hay , was surprised to find her in a flood of tears , for which she declined all explanation ; yet the sight of Pete , the half breed , slouching away toward the stables as Marble closed the gate , more than suggested cause , for `` Pink '' had long disapproved of that young man . That night Crapaud , the other stableman , had scandalized Jerry Sullivan , the bar-keeper , and old McGann , Webb 's Hibernian major domo , by interrupting their game of Old Sledge with a demand for a quart of whiskey on top of all that he had obviously and surreptitiously been drinking , and by further indulging in furious threats , in a sputtering mixture of Dakota French and French Dakota , when summarily kicked out . That night , late as twelve o'clock , Mrs. Ray , aroused by the infantile demands of the fourth of the olive branches , and further disturbed by the suspicious growlings and challenge of old Tonto , Blake 's veteran mastiff , peeped from the second story window and plainly saw two forms in soldier overcoats at the back fence , and wondered what the sentries found about Blake 's quarters to require so much attention . Then she became aware of a third form , rifle-bearing , and slowly pacing the curving line of the bluff -- the sentry beyond doubt . Who , then , were these others who had now totally disappeared ? She thought to speak of it to Nannie in the morning , and then thought not .