nine o'clock
A dozen or more bands were playing a dozen or more different tunes from a dozen or more different dance-halls , all near together along the levee and the neighboring streets ; and , sometimes , high above even these discordant sounds , rose the human voice , in loud song , or boisterous shout , or peals of rough laughter . Around some of the near-by camp-fires men had gathered and were singing the loved home melodies ; and from one of these groups came the voice of a woman in song , sounding singularly sweet and entrancing in the midst of all those harsher sounds . Above their heads a gentle wind blew murmuringly and whisperingly through the wide-spreading branches of the evergreen oak ; and , at their feet , snapped and crackled the ruddy flames of their own camp-fire . By nine o'clock the lights of the surrounding camp-fires began to grow dimmer , and the songs and the laughter and the talking of the groups around them ceased . All these were seeking their beds or blankets ; and soon only the noise and the music , the songs and the shouts of the revelers broke the stillness of the night . For a little while , before closing their eyes in sleep , Thure and Bud lay in their blankets listening to these distant sounds of wild revelry . Suddenly , above the music , above the songs and the shouts and the laughter , rang out the sharp -- crack -- crack -- of two pistol shots , followed by an instant 's lull in the sounds ; and then the music , the songs , the shouts , and the laughter went on , louder and madder than ever .