about midnight
And when finally Allan declared that he now knew all , the officer drew a long breath , and remarked , quietly : `` I seem to smell a pretty good-sized rat about this game Mr. Artemus is putting up ; but as I said , the warrant he swore out is in my hands for serving , and I just reckon I 'll have to do my sworn duty and arrest this same Aleck -- that is , if so be he shows up while we 're around here . '' Allan looked him squarely in the eye ; and he was sure one of the lids above the blue orbs of the official dropped a little in a suggestive way . He too drew a long breath , and with a smile on his boyish face , said as he arose : `` Thank you , Mr. Sheriff , thank you very much ! '' As has been mentioned before , Thad had a plan in view when he left the camp in company with Aleck , somewhere about midnight . Though for certain reasons which he considered good , he had not seen fit to take a single one of his comrades into his confidence , the scoutmaster believed that the only way for Aleck to win his own game was to find the long-lost mine , and take possession of the same in the name of his father , who had been the original discoverer of the lode . Scores of hungry prospectors , besides Kracker , had done everything in their power to locate the mine ; though none had descended to his last unworthy methods of trying to torture Jerry Rawson 's son , in the hope of profiting thereby . As the claim of the original discoverer rested only on a scant foundation , of course the man lucky enough to find the silver lode again would have a right to hold possession , in the eye of the law .