ten o'clock in the morning
Not until after Colonel Turnbull and the engineer had ridden off southward , escorted by a sergeant with six tough-looking troopers ; not until after Loring 's announcement that the jewels themselves had been sent ahead ; not until after Mr. Gleason had been remanded to his quarters to `` sober up , '' and the adjutant dispatched to Captain Nevins with the intimation that if his too audible imprecations were not stopped he and his tent would be transferred to a corner of the corral , did Camp Cooke learn that Major Starke had sent a fly-by-night courier after Blake , recalling the troop , that it had halted on that stream ten miles above the post , resting all afternoon and evening , had ridden silently in toward camp an hour after midnight and , after receiving certain instructions from Starke and a visit from Loring , had gone on southward , silently as it came , accompanied by the presiding officer of the court , who hated day marches and the sun-scorched desert , and leaving escort for those who were still to follow . There was mild surprise in camp , but untold wrath and vituperation along the line to Sancho 's , for from far and near the choicest renegades of Arizona had been flocking to the neighborhood only to find themselves outwitted by the engineer . Not half an hour after the burst of blasphemy from Nevins ' tent informed the camp that something more had happened to agitate anew his sorely ruffled temper , and the story flew from lip to lip that it was because the precious jewels were already on their way to ` Frisco , guarded presumably by Blake and forty carbines , a swarthy half-breed courier spurred madly southward from the outlying roost on the borders of the reservation , with the warning that it would be useless risk to meddle with the Teniente Loring 's party when it came along -- there were no valuables with them ; they had been sent with the cavalry hours before the dawn . Yes , even the sealed record of the court must have been sent at that time , too , for at ten o'clock in the morning , when Colonel Turnbull and Mr. Loring mounted and gravely saluted the cap-raising group of officers as they rode away from the major 's quarters , it was observed that Loring had not even saddle-bags , and the major 's striker admitted that he had hoisted the lieutenant 's valise to the pommel of a trooper 's saddle at two o'clock in the morning . Various were the theories and conjectures at the sutler 's all the rest of the day as to the information possessed by Lieutenant Loring which led to such extreme precaution . The major was close-mouthed , and , for him , rather stern . He held aloof from his juniors all day long and seemed to be keeping an eye and an ear attent on Nevins .