nearly nine o'clock
`` I never saw anything more beautiful . '' Now that night had settled over the trail , the riders had to move along more cautiously , and with tight reins , that their ponies might not stumble and hurl the riders over their heads . Tad , with an eye to caution , had advised them to do this . In this way the train moved on until nearly nine o'clock , when Lige announced that they had reached their halting place . The mountain top where they stopped was thickly studded with cedars and pinyon trees , while off in the ravines slender spruces reared their sharp points above the shadows , projecting up through the black sea like the spars of a whole fleet of sunken schooners . `` Old Ben Tackers lives nigh here , '' the guide told them . `` I 'll go over and get him after supper .