about five o'clock in the morning
The eagles would have to be the prize of his marksmanship , even though he winged them against his will . * * * * * * * At the end of that week he told himself that he would have to get the birds that day , or give up the hunt for them , and devote his entire time to the gardens . He resolved to spend the whole day in the neighborhood of Eagle Cliff , as he called it ; for get them he would , then or never , before going back to the presence of his patient , pathetic , brave little mother . Accordingly , about five o'clock in the morning , he led the faithful Keno from his stall , and rode slowly down the dusty road until he came to a point where the narrow bridlepath branched off the road and wound upward into the silent woods . Following this path until it became indistinguishable on a thick carpet of moss and leaves and coarse fern , he reached the big boulder at last ; there he left Keno safely tied and hidden in a clump of alders . Then he went on , several rods down the trail , and took up his position directly across the stream from Eagle Cliff . Lying on his back in the narrow trail , with his eyes continually roving over the jagged side of the cliff , Ralph became drowsy , in spite of his desire to catch sight of the eagles when they rose to stretch their wings in the first flight of the day .