four o'clock in the morning
`` I ca n't ride much further , '' said Tom at last . `` I am so tired I am ready to drop . '' `` Ditto here , '' came from Songbird . Nevertheless , they kept on , and thus was the shadowing continued until four o'clock in the morning , when the party ahead came to a patch of timber on the side of a steep hill . Here , among the trees and rocks , they went into a temporary camp . The boys had come as close as they dared , and reaching a convenient hillock with a clump of bushes , dismounted and threw themselves on the ground . `` They are going into camp , sure enough , '' announced Dick after a careful inspection .