four o'clock
Officer after officer , unable to restrain his impatience , strode back across the bluff summit , amid whistling bullets , and personally begged the Major to speak the one word which should hurl them to the rescue . They cried like women , they swore through clinched teeth , they openly exhibited their contempt for such a commander , yet the discipline of army service made active disobedience impossible . They went reluctantly back , as helpless as children . It was four o'clock , the shadows of the western bluffs already darkening the river bank . Suddenly a faint cheer ran along the lines , and the men lifted themselves to gaze up the river . Urging the tired animals to a trot , the strong hand of a trooper grasping every halter-strap , Brant was swinging his long pack-train up the smoke-wreathed valley . The out-riding flankers exchanged constant shots with the skulking savages hiding in every ravine and coulée .