about eight o'clock
It meant cold -- intense cold . Always the plague came in the days of greatest cold -- the lower the temperature the more terrible its havoc . It grew steadily colder that night , and the increased chill penetrated to the heart of the windfall , and drew Kazan and Gray Wolf closer together . With dawn , which came at about eight o'clock , Kazan and his blind mate sallied forth into the day . It was fifty degrees below zero . About them the trees cracked with reports like pistol-shots . In the thickest spruce the partridges were humped into round balls of feathers .