nearly noon
`` Give Morton our dispatch and cipher book , and he will attend to it better than you or I , for he is an expert operator . '' `` By George ! that 's so , I had forgotten it ; he learned telegraphy there at college just to amuse himself , and had a battery in his room ; well , that 's fortunate , he will be just the one for us . '' `` It is nearly noon , '' said Houston , consulting his watch , `` we will see Morton at the house , and arrange the message between us , and he will send it immediately . '' After dinner , there was a brief consultation in Houston 's room with the result that the following dispatch was formulated , written in cipher , and addressed to Mr. Whitney , at Chicago , the attorney from New York , accompanying Mr. Cameron : `` Come at once , no delay ; go to Arlington Hotel , Silver City ; keep dark , do not register . Van Dorn will meet you at hotel . '' Houston realized that they were now rapidly approaching the final denouement , -- the closing act of the drama which might yet prove a tragedy , -- and as he placed the folded slip of paper in Morton Rutherford 's hand , he said with a sigh : `` This is the beginning of the end . ''