midnight
`` Yo ' be smart man , '' he added grimly , `` yo ' all same kickum dat mans off yo ' ranch . '' For emphasis he thrust out a foot vigorously in the direction of the house and the man he maligned , and turned his face toward camp . Peaceful watched until the blanketed form merged into the dusk creeping over the valley , and when it disappeared finally into the short cut through the sage , he shook his gray head in puzzlement over the absurd warning , and went back to talk politics with Baumberger . Came midnight and moonlight together , and with them came also Good Indian riding somewhat sullenly down the trail to the ranch . Sullen because of Evadna 's attitude , which seemed to him permanently antagonistic , and for very slight cause , and which made the ranch an unpleasant abiding place . He decided that he would not stop at the ranch , but would go on up the valley to where one Abuer Hicks lived by himself in a half-dugout , half-board shack , and by mining a little where his land was untillable , and farming a little where the soil took kindly to fruit and grasses , managed to exist without too great hardship . The pension he received for having killed a few of his fellow-men at the behest of his government was devoted solely to liquid relief from the monotony of his life , and welcome indeed was the man who brought him a bottle of joy between times .