three in the morning
This knowledge helped her to an understanding of Waldron 's next letter . He gave her a brief but graphic description of his surroundings in a camp upon the mountains , reached by a trail of nearly thirty miles from Puerto Andes . Certain long-delayed and badly needed machinery had arrived at ten o'clock of the previous evening , packed over the trail by mules . This had been unloaded by three in the morning , and the engineers had been so glad to see the stuff at last that they had been unwilling to go at once to bed , tired as they were . The mail had come in by the same route , and it had been by the smouldering campfire of the early morning that Waldron had read his letter from Dorothy . `` Such a very short letter ! '' he said of it , and continued : `` Yet it was more welcome than you can guess .