noon
The contract in question was a blanket one , requiring about fifty thousand cows for delivery at some twenty Indian agencies . The use of my name was all that was required of me , as I was the only cowman in the entire ring . My duty was to bid on the contract ; the bonds would be furnished by my partners , of which I must have had a dozen . The proposals called for sealed bids , in the usual form , to be in the hands of the Department of the Interior before noon on a certain day , marked so and so , and to be opened at high noon a week later . The contract was a large one , the competition was ample . Several other Texas drovers besides myself had submitted bids ; but they stood no show -- _ I had been furnished the figures of every competitor . _ The ramifications of the ring of which I was the mere figure-head can be readily imagined .