nearly ten o'clock
Callahan and the linemen were spreading both ways through the timber on the plateau opposite , but the snow made the work extremely difficult , and the short day allowed hardly more than a start . On the hill Glover 's men advanced barely a hundred feet in three hours : darkness spread over the range with no sign of the missing man , and with the forebodings that none could shake off of what the night 's exposure , even if he were uninjured , might mean . Supper was served to the men in the relief trains , and outside fires were forbidden by Glover , who asked that every foot of the track as far as the gap be patrolled all night . It was nearly ten o'clock when Glover , supperless , reached the car with his dispositions made for the night . While he talked with the men , Clem , the star cook of the Brock family , under special orders grilled a big porterhouse steak and presently asked him back to the dining-table , where , behind the shaded candles , Gertrude waited . They sat down opposite each other ; but not until Glover saw there were two plates instead of one , and learned that Gertrude had eaten no dinner because she was waiting for him , did he mutter something about all that an American girl is capable of in the way of making a man grateful and happy . There was nothing to hurry them back to the other end of the car , and they did not rejoin Mr. Brock and Bucks , who were smoking forward , until eleven o'clock .