eleven o'clock
give me ten Turks and a dog , and I 'd capture the whole of this sector any hour of the day or night , '' and his head was over the parapet in broad daylight , examining the Turkish peepholes . It was a common saying that he would be hit one fine morning . The morning came . The Signal Officer and I were sitting in the Headquarters Mess , sipping an eleven o'clock cherry brandy , and wondering why the General and the Brigade Major had not returned from their tour of the trenches . Headquarters were situated in Gully Ravine , that prince among ravines on the Peninsula . From my place I could see the gully floor , which was the dry bed of a water-course , winding away between high walls of perpendicular cliffs or steep , scrub-covered slopes , as it pursued its journey , like some colossal trench , towards the firing line . Down the great cleft , while I looked , a horseman came riding rapidly .