ten o'clock
On this intelligence , it was clear that , with good luck , the down-train might reach them at any moment . Still the men resolved to leave their milk , while they went back for more , relying on Silas and the `` large working party '' to put it on the cars , if the train chanced to pass before any of them returned . So back they fared to Lovejoy 's for their next relay , and met John and Reuben working in successfully with their second . But no one need have hurried ; for , as trip after trip they built their pyramid of cans higher and higher , no welcome whistle broke the stillness of the night , and by ten o'clock , when all these cans were in place by the rail , the train had not yet come . John and Reuben then proposed to go up into the cut , and to relieve poor Silas , who had not been heard from since he swung along so cheerfully like an `` Excelsior '' boy on his way up the Alps . But they had hardly started , when a horn from the meadow recalled them , and , retracing their way , they met a messenger who had come in to say that a fresh team from the Four Corners had been reported at Lovejoy 's , with a dozen or more men , who had succeeded in bringing down nearly as far as Lovejoy 's mowing-lot near a hundred more cans ; that it was quite possible in two or three hours more to bring this over also , -- and , although the first train was probably now close at hand , it was clearly worth while to place this relief in readiness for a second . So poor Silas was left for the moment to his loneliness , and Reuben and John returned again upon their steps .