nearly noon
`` I 'd much rather have our enemies outside of camp than inside , '' Reade continued . `` If we took these absentees back after they 've been in the company of rascals , then we would n't have any means of knowing how many of the absentees had agreed to do treacherous things within the camp . It would hardly be a wise plan to encourage the breeding of rattlesnakes within the camp limits . '' It was nearly noon when the first batch of laborers , some American and some Mexican , returned to camp . These men started to go by the checker 's hut at a distance , but keen-eyed Superintendent Hawkins saw them and ordered them around to the hut . `` You 'll have to wait here until your foremen are called , '' declared the checker . `` Say , what 's the trouble here ! ''