noon
said Mrs. Sanders . `` If I only had his money , I 'd never be wearing my heart out in this desert land . '' She was not the only army wife and mother that should have married a stockbroker -- anything rather than a soldier . The whole post knew by noon that Byrne was coming , and waited with feverish impatience . Byrne was the power that would put an end to the doubts and distractions , decide who stabbed Pat Mullins , who set fire to the `` beetle shop , '' where Epsom Downs had gone , and could even settle , possibly , the long-doubtful question , `` Who struck Billy Patterson ? '' Sandy believed in Byrne as it did in no one since the days of General Crook . With two exceptions , all Sandy society was out on the parade , the porticoes , or the northward bluff , as the sun went down .