midnight
He accepted the veteran 's suggestion without a word of remonstrance . It was Seth Jones , too , who broke down the old man 's last prejudice by persuading him to summon Marshal Stone . Uncle Dick yielded with an odd mingling of emotions -- shame and relief : shame over such trafficking with the `` revenuers , '' whom he had consistently fought and despised through three generations ; relief that he had gained the strong arm of the law to his side . He had been greatly heartened when Stone answered over the wire that he would set out with a posse at midnight for the Siddon cabin , so that , after a conference there , the active work of searching could be begun promptly at dawn . Thus , it came about that , for the first time in history , Uncle Dick Siddon welcomed the sound of hoofbeats pounding up the trail through the darkness . Where , aforetime , he would have leaped to wind a blast of warning to the moonshiners above against the coming of the `` revenuers , '' the old man now hastened to the cabin door , and flung it wide , and went forth on the porch to give grateful greeting . When a council had been held , three parties set forth .