about
midnight
`` Another idea came to me . I might get the help of the U. S. soldiers from the nearest fort in New Mexico , but that was one hundred and fifty miles distant and time was precious . There was no assurance that the boys could hold out until assistance should come . Finally , about midnight , I , too , fell asleep , but not soundly , as the situation was always half consciously before me . `` I woke up in the early dawn , and it did not take Tom and me long to get through our breakfast . After we had watered our horses at a stream in the bottom of a ravine , about a half mile distant , we proceeded to reconnoiter the situation . `` I felt that something must be done this day and it was certainly a perplexing condition of affairs , and in many ways it was desperate .