About three in the afternoon
In the afternoon he took to the trail at an easy trot . The country grew wilder . Bald , rugged mountains broke the level of the monotonous horizon . About three in the afternoon he came to a little river which marked the boundary line of his hunting territory . The decision he made to travel up-stream for a while was owing to two facts : the river was high with quicksand bars on each side , and he felt reluctant to cross into that region where his presence alone meant that he was a marked man . The bottom-lands through which the river wound to the southwest were more inviting than the barrens he had traversed . The rest or that day he rode leisurely up-stream .