About two in the morning
A French Premier had demanded a pledge , and an English marquis had passed on the request to the General in command , with a question as to how it would affect the situation . Cipher telegrams had nearly driven the clerk out of his wits , for of all crazy occupations the taking of a cipher message , when you are without the key to the cipher , is the worst . Much high diplomacy had been going on all day in the innermost chambers of European chancellories , and the results of it had been whispered into this little corrugated-iron hut . About two in the morning an enormous despatch had come at last to an end , and the weary operator had opened the door , and was lighting his pipe in the cool , fresh air , when he saw a camel plump down in the dust , and a man , who seemed to be in the last stage of drunkenness , come rolling towards him . `` What 's the time ? '' he cried , in a voice which appeared to be the only sober thing about him . It was on the clerk 's lips to say that it was time that the questioner was in his bed , but it is not safe upon a campaign to be ironical at the expense of khaki-clad men .