midnight
He gasped a few times and then Parker heard Connick exclaim : `` Do n't ye strike me with that sled-stake , Colonel Gideon , or it might be the worse for ye . I 'll not bother your man in the wangan till I find out more about what you 're doin ' to him -- but do n't you hit me with that stick . '' Both men went back into the big camp , Ward furiously chewing the reflection that for the first time he had been bearded in his own camp . Gideon Ward sat until midnight in his little pen off the main camp , poking his fire and meditating . He had reckoned that he was justified in proceeding to extremes with this young man , confident that in the end he would break his spirit and frighten him out of the woods . But he realized now with sinking heart that his violence had endangered all the political influence of the gigantic timber interests . The youth had a powerful weapon , and he , Gideon Ward , would be accused of furnishing it .