noon
And he were the basest man in all the world who should ignore it and show his face at Varick Manor -- were he free to choose . But I was not free ; I was a military servant , pledged under solemn oath and before God to obedience -- instant , unquestioning , unfaltering obedience . And in my trembling hand I held my written orders to report at Varick Manor . At dawn we left the road and struck the Oneida trail north of the river , following it swiftly , bearing a little north of east until , towards noon , we came into the wagon-road which runs over the Mayfield hills and down through the outlying bush farms of Mayfield and Kingsborough . Many of the houses were deserted , but not all ; here and there smoke curled from the chimney of some lonely farm ; and across the stump pasture we could see a woman laboring in the sun-scorched fields and a man , rifle in hand , standing guard on a vantage-point which overlooked his land . Fences and gates became more frequent , crossing the rough road every mile or two , so that we were constantly letting down and replacing cattle-bars , unpinning rude gates , or climbing over snake fences of split rails . Once we came to a cross-roads where the fence had been demolished and a warning painted on a rough pine board above a wayside watering-trough .