nine in the evening
Shorty , with the sled and dogs , had disappeared . Neither travelers up and down the Yukon , nor from Bonanza , Eldorado , nor the Klondike , had seen him . Remained only Smoke , who , soon or late , was certain to try to connect with his missing partner ; and upon Smoke everybody 's attention was centered . On the second night he did not leave his cabin , putting out the lamp at nine in the evening and setting the alarm for two next morning . The watch outside heard the alarm go off , so that when , half an hour later , he emerged from the cabin , he found waiting for him a band , not of sixty men , but of at least three hundred . A flaming aurora borealis lighted the scene , and , thus hugely escorted , he walked down to town and entered the Elkhorn . The place was immediately packed and jammed by an anxious and irritated multitude that bought drinks , and for four weary hours watched Smoke play cribbage with his old friend Breck .