About three o'clock
He was unconsciously absorbed in the study of eye and lip and brow . His eyes were growing accustomed to the form and feature of this girl beside him , and he took pleasure in watching her . They stopped for lunch in a coulee under a pretty cluster of cedar-trees a little back from the trail , where they might look over the way they had come and be warned against pursuers . About three o'clock they reached a town . Here the railroad came directly from Malta , but there was but one train a day each way . The man went to the public stopping-place and asked for a room , and boldly demanded a private place for his `` sister '' to rest for a while . `` She is my little sister , '' he told himself in excuse for the word .