ten o'clock
With mind and will bent on one object -- to reach the first habitation , the `` Summit , '' and send back help and assistance to his wounded comrade -- he urged Rabbit forward . The mare knew her rider , but he had no time for caresses . Through the smarting of his hands he had only just noticed that they were badly burned , and the skin was peeling from them ; he had confounded the blood that was flowing from a cut on his scalp , with that from the wounded horse . It was one hour yet to the `` Summit , '' but the road was good , the moon was bright , he knew what Rabbit could do , and it was not yet ten o'clock . As the white outbuildings and irregular outlines of the `` Summit House '' began to be visible , Jeff felt a singular return of his former dreamy abstraction . The hour of peril , anger , and excitement he had just passed through seemed something of years ago , or rather to be obliterated with all else that had passed since he had looked upon that scene . Yet it was all changed -- strangely changed !