three o'clock in the afternoon
`` Better ride your horse around by way of the ford ten miles away , '' were the instructions as Lester saddled up . `` Then you can come at 'em by the rear . '' No word of young Larkin 's intention had passed about the camp , and the sheepmen watched with considerable wonder the departure of the boy , placing it to Bud 's fear of his receiving an injury in the trouble that was almost surely bound to happen that night . At three o'clock in the afternoon , or thereabouts , Lester , with his outfit strapped on his dejected horse , rode slowly away from the sheepmen 's camp . Meanwhile , behind the various defenses that had been erected against the coming of Bud Larkin and his animals , the cowmen and their punchers were making ready for their night 's battle . The chief actor in these fevered preparations was Beef Bissell , whose hatred of Larkin was something to frighten babies with at night . Since the gallant battle at Welsh 's Butte , Bissell had changed some of his ideas regarding sheepmen in general ; but he had changed none regarding Larkin in particular .