four o'clock
One could call out here with never a faint hope of being heard ; one left alone here could die miserably , taunted only by the echoes of her own choking voice . This devil 's land took on a vindictive personality ; it was a hideous colossus , stooping over her , inspired with but one cruel desire , to crush her soft white body , to stamp out her life , to annihilate her and gloat over her shrieking despair . She felt like some hapless little princess in a fairy-tale who had wandered into a monstrous land of black sorcery . By four o'clock , when it seemed to Gloria that she had reached and was passing the limits of her endurance , came two momentous occurrences . King , riding ahead as usual , was not quite so far in advance , and did not have his back turned square upon her . For the first time he had briefly mistaken the trail ; they were on the steep flank of the mountain ; he turned and rode back in her general direction but some hundred yards lower on the slope . `` The trail 's down here , '' he announced shortly .