eleven o'clock
`` The fellows would see you coming , and take to their heels toward the interior before you came within rifle range . You will have to go after dark , Lieutenant , and better still , towards midnight . In the early evening they might be watching for an American advance , but late at night they would decide that their hiding place is not suspected . You will plan , Lieutenant , to leave here at a little before eleven o'clock to-night , which will bring you to the adobe house about midnight . I will communicate my information to the commander of the forces ashore , and , if not reversed by him , my present instructions will hold . '' The orders were not reversed . At 10.45 that night Trent marched his detachment beyond the advanced line .