midnight
It 's worth livin ' a hard life ter view how a feller 's friends will take his demise . '' `` I reckon ye kin make out ter meet the wagin kemin ' back from the cross-roads ' store . It went out this evenin ' with that coffin full of jugs that ye lef ' las ' night under the church-house , whenst ` Gene seen you-uns war suspicioned . They will hev time ter git ter the cross-roads with the whisky on ' back little arter midnight , special ' ez we-uns hev got the raider that spied out the job hyar fast by the leg . '' The mere mention of the young prisoner rendered Wyatt the more eager to be gone , to be out of sight and sound . But he had no agency in the disaster , he urged against some inward clamor of protest ; the catastrophe was the logical result of the fool-hardiness of the officer in following these desperate men with no backing , with no power to apprehend or hold , relying on his flimsy disguise , and risking delivering himself into their hands , fettered as he was with the knowledge of his discovery of their secret . `` It 's nothin ' ter _ me _ , nohow , '' Wyatt was continually repeating to himself , though when he sprang through the door he could scarcely draw his breath because of some mysterious , invisible clutch at his throat .