nine o'clock
And the ditch was as provoking as Nancy , rewarding his devotion with breaks that defied all explanation . It was not possible that the patience of the management could hold out much longer ; and when he should have been dismissed in disgrace from his post , Nancy would lightly class him as another of those `` good boys enough , but trifling watchmen . '' The first dry moon was just past the full . At nine o'clock the sky began to whiten above the long , bare ridge of the side-hill cut . At half past , the edge of the moon 's disk clove the sky-line , and the shadow of the ridge crept down among the willows and tule-beds of the bottom . At ten the shadow had shrunk ; it lay black on the ditch-bank , but the whispering treetops below were turning in silver light that flickered along the cow-path and caught the still eye of a dark , shallow pool among the tules . Nancy had chosen this night for a stroll to the bridge , where Travis might be expected to pass , any time between eight o'clock and moonrise .