ten o'clock
In all my outdoor experience I never saw such pitchy darkness as accompanied that storm ; although galloping across a prairie in a blustering rainfall , it required no strain of the imagination to see hills and mountains and forests on every hand . Fourteen men were with the herd , yet it was impossible to work in unison , and when day broke we had less than half the cattle . The lead had been maintained , but in drifting at random with the storm several contingents of beeves had cut off from the main body , supposedly from the rear . When the sun rose , men were dispatched in pairs and trios , the trail of the missing steers was picked up , and by ten o'clock every hoof was in hand or accounted for . I came in with the last contingent and found the camp in an uproar over the supposed desertion of one of the hands . Yankee Bill , a sixteen-year-old boy , and another man were left in charge of the herd when the rest of us struck out to hunt the missing cattle . An hour after sunrise the boy was seen to ride deliberately away from his charge , without cause or excuse , and had not returned .