five o'clock
News of the wreck at Smoky Creek reached Medicine Bend from Point of Rocks at five o'clock . Sinclair , in person , was overseeing the making up of his wrecking train , and the yard , usually quiet at that hour of the morning , was alive with the hurry of men and engines . In the trainmaster 's room of the weather-beaten headquarters building , nicknamed by railroad men `` The Wickiup , '' early comers -- sleepy-faced , keen-eyed trainmen -- lounged on the tables and in chairs discussing the reports from Point of Rocks , and among them crew-callers and messengers moved in and out . From the door of the big operators ' room , pushed at intervals abruptly open , burst a blaze of light and the current crash of many keys ; within , behind glass screens , alert , smooth-faced boys in shirt sleeves rained calls over the wires or bent with flying pens above clips , taking incoming messages .