midnight
So far had spring roundup progressed that Luck was holding the camp in Tijeras Arroyo for picture-making only . Applehead 's calves were branded , to the youngest pair of knock-kneed twins which Happy Jack found curled up together cunningly hidden in a thicket . They had been honored with a `` close-up '' scene , those two spotted calves , and were destined to further honors which they did not suspect and could not appreciate . They slept now , as slept the two camps upon the two slopes that lay moon-bathed at midnight . Back where the moon was making the barren mountains a wonderland of deep purple and black and silvery gray and brown , a coyote yapped a falsetto message and was answered by one nearer at hand -- his mate , it might be . In a bush under the bank that made of it a black blot in the unearthly whiteness of the sand , a little bird fluttered uneasily and sent a small , inquiring chirp into the stillness . From somewhere farther up the arroyo drifted a faint , aromatic odor of cigarette smoke .