About ten o'clock
Eventually I managed to make him talk soberly , and he told me how this Englishman had spent six months night after night in exploring , inch by inch , the passage across the quicksand ; how he had declared it to be simplicity itself up to within about twenty yards of the river bank after turning the flank of the left horn of the horseshoe . This much he had evidently not completed when Gunga Dass shot him with his own gun , In my frenzy of delight at the possibilities of escape I recollect shaking hands effusively with Gunga Dass , after we had decided that we were to make an attempt to get away that very night . It was weary work waiting throughout the afternoon . About ten o'clock , as far as I could judge , when the Moon had just risen above the lip of the crater , Gunga Dass made a move for his burrow to bring out the gun-barrels whereby to measure our path . All the other wretched inhabitants had retired to their lairs long ago . The guardian boat drifted down-stream some hours before , and we were utterly alone by the crow-clump . Gunga Dass , while carrying the gun-barrels , let slip the piece of paper which was to be our guide .