about
ten o’clock
`` You stay then , Harry , '' observed the other stranger , `` for I shall move on to Ridgeway , as I want to hear what 's afloat there . There are troops , I know , at Port Colborne , and they ought to be apprised of the whereabouts of the enemy , and so should the inhabitants of this neighborhood . Mr. Graham , the Collector of Fort Erie , has , I am informed , proceeded with information of the enemy to Port Colborne ; but still there is not yet anything known of their precise location , so contradictory are the rumors , not only as to where they are encamped , but in relation to their numbers . '' `` I can satisfy you as to both these circumstances , '' broke in the Kid , with a voice as bland as if murder had not visited his heart for an age , `` for I heard this evening that they were encamped about four hundred strong at Newbiggin 's farm , four or five miles down the river from Fort Erie ; and that they intended to move on towards Chippewa about ten o'clock ; branching off in the direction of Ridgeway , in the hope of meeting the troops coming from Port Colborne , and defeating them before they formed a junction with those expected from Chippewa . '' `` As my cousin Harry will sit up with the family for the remainder of the night , then , perhaps you would not mind walking as far as Ridgeway , '' replied the young fellow who had last spoken , `` as we are sure to have news there ; from the fact of the village being on the line of the Grand Trunk . '' Seeing that his murderous plot was for the time defeated , the Kid made no objection to this request ; feeling that the darkness and the night , as well as any whirl of excitement or debauch , were more in accordance with the infernal tone of his spirit , than the conversation of two beings , Martha and Evans , whom his keen eye at once discovered to be lovers . So bidding the family good night , and not waiting to partake of the refreshments offered him after his journey from the Fenian camp , he sallied forth with his new acquaintance on the road leading to the village .