about two o'clock in the afternoon
With the departure of the train , the two boys became the center of some attention . Strangers were not plentiful in Clarkeville , and when the news spread that a special car was standing behind the freight shed on the far side of the tracks there was an instant rush of idlers in that direction . Ned and Alan returned with them and smiling good-naturedly right and left took stand at the forward car steps . It was about two o'clock in the afternoon , but so anxious had the boys become in the last stage of their journey that they had ordered Elmer to put off the noonday meal until they reached Clarkeville . The colored boy , troubled over the notion of a good dinner spoiling , was waiting on the car platform for it chance to get his `` bosses , '' as he delighted to call them , into the car . Before he could do so , and while the two chums were answering idle questions as to whether they were a `` show , '' Ned 's quick eye caught sight of a more important personage . A middle-aged man , not quite so western in appearance as the others , but plainly as much at home in the saddle , rode up with a clatter and sprang from his pony .