Two o'clock A.M.
The boys were slowly dispersing , when one , who was strongly suspected of having been a Church member remarked : `` He was took of a sudden , so he should n't be stuck up . '' Whitey turned to him , and replied , with some asperity : `` Young man , you 'll be lucky ef _ you 're _ ever stuck up as high as the captain . '' And all the boys understood what Whitey meant . Two o'clock A.M. is supposed to be a popular sleeping hour the world over , and as Flatfoot Bar was a portion of the terrestrial sphere , it was but natural to expect its denizens to be in bed at that hour . Yet , on a certain morning twenty years ago , when there was neither sickness nor a fashionable entertainment to excuse irregular hours in camp , a bright light streamed from the only window of Chagres Charley 's residence at Flatfoot Bar , and inside of the walls of Chagres Charley 's domicile were half a dozen miners engaged in earnest conversation . Flatfoot Bar had never formally elected a town committee , for the half-dozen men aforesaid had long ago modestly assumed the duties and responsibilities of city fathers , and so judicious had been their conduct , that no one had ever expressed a desire for a change in the government . The six men , in half a dozen different positions , surrounded Chagres Charley 's fire , and gazed into it as intently as if they were fire-worshipers awaiting the utterances of a salamanderish oracle .