about two o'clock in the morning
That night Fred and Terry rode all around the enclosed part of the range on the lookout for wolves , and also to let the cowboys see that they were expected to do their work faithfully . The new cattle grazed incessantly , but nothing occurred during the night to start an alarm among them . The majority of them , as dark set in , laid down to sleep or to chew their cud . The two boys turned in at about two o'clock in the morning . The next day one of the cowboys came in and reported that somebody down at the lower end of the ranch had cut out a complete panel of the barbed wire , thus leaving a wide gap for the cattle to go through . Fred and Terry hurried down there on their horses with their Winchesters , accompanied by two of their most expert and faithful cowboys and made a thorough investigation . They could see the tracks of three men , who had probably cut the wires ; but they were unable to find the trail of any cattle passing through the gap .