nearly midnight
I . A Gentleman of the Range When Madeline Hammond stepped from the train at El Cajon , New Mexico , it was nearly midnight , and her first impression was of a huge dark space of cool , windy emptiness , strange and silent , stretching away under great blinking white stars . `` Miss , there 's no one to meet you , '' said the conductor , rather anxiously . `` I wired my brother , '' she replied . `` The train being so late -- perhaps he grew tired of waiting .