nine o'clock
Sounds like a newspaper yarn , does n't it ? '' The traveling man laughed and offered Everett a cigar , and plied him with questions on the only subject that people ever seemed to care to talk to Everett about . At length the salesman and the two girls alighted at a Colorado way station , and Everett went on to Cheyenne alone . The train pulled into Cheyenne at nine o'clock , late by a matter of four hours or so ; but no one seemed particularly concerned at its tardiness except the station agent , who grumbled at being kept in the office overtime on a summer night . When Everett alighted from the train he walked down the platform and stopped at the track crossing , uncertain as to what direction he should take to reach a hotel . A phaeton stood near the crossing , and a woman held the reins . She was dressed in white , and her figure was clearly silhouetted against the cushions , though it was too dark to see her face .