nearly midnight
But with the falling of darkness every horse was brought in and we harnessed up and started , leaving the fire burning to identify our supposed camp . The drovers gave our darky cook instructions , in case of an attack while passing through the Gap , never to halt his team , but push ahead for the plain . About one third of us took the immediate lead of the wagon , the remuda following closely , and the remainder of the men bringing up the rear . The moon was on the wane and would not rise until nearly midnight , and for the first few miles , or until we entered the cañon , there was scarce a sound to disturb the stillness of the night . The sandy road even muffled the noise of the wagon and the tramping of horses ; but once we entered that rocky cañon , the rattling of our commissary seemed to summon every Comanche and his ally to come and rob us . There was never a halt , the reverberations of our caravan seeming to reëcho through the Gap , resounding forward and back , until our progress must have been audible at Horsehead Crossing . But the expected never happens , and within an hour we reached the summit of the plain , where the country was open and clear and an attack could have been easily repelled .