about midnight
The youths listened in breathless silence , waiting for what would come next . `` There really ought to be two men riding together at all times , so that if a mishap occurs to one of them , the other can help him out of his trouble , and , if unable to do so , can go for assistance ; and we generally send out a black boy on horseback with each stockman . A few months ago one of our stockmen , who had gone out alone , failed to come home at night , and we were at once apprehensive that something had happened to him . His horse came back along about midnight , and the next morning several of us started out to find him . We tried to make use of the intelligence of the horse to guide us to the place where he had left his master , but , unfortunately , it was an animal that he had ridden only a few times and there was no attachment whatever between man and beast . We rode along the boundary where we knew he was accustomed to go , but did not find him . We spread out over all the ground we could cover and shouted continually , in the hope that he would hear us and answer .