ten o'clock
He was disgusted with his outfit , and was discharging men right and left and hiring new ones to take their places . I apologized for my appearance , showed him my outfit , and got a job cow-punching with this through man . He expected to hold on sale a week or two , when if unsold he would drift north to the Platte . The first week that I worked , a wet stormy night struck us , and before ten o'clock we lost every hoof of cattle . I was riding wild after little squads of cattle here and there , guided by flashes of lightning , when the storm finally broke . Well , there it was midnight , and I did n't have a HOOF OF CATTLE to hold and no one to help me if I had . The truth is , I was lost .