midnight
I sent for the elder Cordova , and he listened long , with an ear close to the ground . His opinion was that the Indians were creeping up for another attack . Orders were sent to Sergeant Cunningham to wake the men without noise and assemble them at the barricades . A little after midnight the moon rose over the mountains and bathed the valley in a beautiful light . As the moon cleared herself from the summits of the range and her rays fell upon the line of paling camp-fires of the Indians , my field-glass revealed the fact that the raiders had departed . Ponies and riders were gone . In the whole length and breadth of the Great Valley not a living being was in sight outside the limit of our encampment .