ten o'clock
Then I bade them follow me again , and once more rode on alone ahead , for , as you may well believe , I was too full of my own thoughts and hopes and fears to be in any mood for conversation , even with Joyful Star herself . They , too , talked but little , and as we rode on in the deepening gloom amid the solemn silence and the gaunt grandeur of the mountains , their words became fewer and fewer , till at length thought took the place of speech , and the silence was broken by no sound save the patter of the mules ' feet and the rattle of stones under their iron-shod hoofs . Hour after hour I led them on , turning from valley to valley on the road that was visible only to my own eyes , and ever rising higher and higher towards the twin peaks that now stood out dark and sharp against the starry sky . At last , when our watches were nearly marking ten o'clock , I stopped before a cliff covered with bushes and creeping grasses , and calling Tupac to me , I bade him seek for an opening under these . He groped about among the bushes for a while , and then suddenly , with a short cry of surprise , he vanished , as it seemed , through the face of the rock itself . I dismounted and followed him , and found him standing behind the bushes , facing a square doorway cut in the rock and lined with masonry . Behind it , and closing it completely , was a great slab of dressed stone .