nine o'clock
I smiled a little , and remarked to myself , `` I think I can make good my boast that I would catch the robbers ; but whether the Cullens will like my doing it , I question . What is more , Lord Ralles will owe me a bottle . '' Then I thought of Madge , and did n't feel as pleased over my success as I had felt a moment before . By nine o'clock the posse and I were in the saddle and skirting the San Francisco peaks . There was no use of pressing the ponies , for our game was n't trying to escape , and , for that matter , could n't , as the Colorado River was n't passable within fifty miles . It was a lovely moonlight night , and the ride through the pines was as pretty a one as I remember ever to have made . It set me thinking of Madge and of our talk the evening before , and of what a change twenty-four hours had brought .