about four o’clock in the
afternoon
During those days , also , I recovered so rapidly that at the end of them I was almost in my normal condition , and could walk well with the aid of a single stick . At length the eventful Thursday came , and about midday -- for I lay in bed late that morning and did not shoot -- I drove , or , rather , was driven , in a Cape cart with two horses to the place known as Groote Kloof or Great Gully . Over this gorge the wild geese flighted from their `` pans '' or feeding grounds on the high lands above , to other pans that lay some miles below , and thence , I suppose , straight out to the sea coast , whence they returned at dawn . On arriving at the mouth of Groote Kloof about four o'clock in the afternoon , my father and I were astonished to see a great number of Boers assembled there , and among them a certain sprinkling of their younger womankind , who had come on horseback or in carts . `` Good gracious ! '' I said to my father ; `` if I had known there was to be such a fuss as this about a shooting match , I do n't think I could have faced it . '' `` Hum , '' he answered ; `` I think there is more in the wind than your match .