five o'clock
Not an animal fit to bear a man had been left in the camp . But the twenty men who rode far off in the white desolation out beyond were losing hope as they searched and searched in the drifts and mounds that lay so deep upon the earth . By feeble lantern glows at first , and later by the cold , gray light of dawn , they scanned the road and the country for miles and miles . It was five o'clock , and six in the morning , and still the scattered company of men and horses pushed onward through the snow . The quest became one of dread . They almost feared to find the little group . The wind had ceased to blow , but the air was cold .