three
o'clock
We continued to ascend the path , dragging the Lala between us . He had little chance of escape between two such men as we , and he seemed to know it , for after a few minutes he submitted quietly enough . At last we reached an open space among the rocks and trees , and Balsamides stopped . We were quite out of earshot from the road , and it would be hard to imagine a more desolate place than it appeared , between two and three o'clock on that March night , the bare twigs of the birch-trees wriggling in the bleak wind , the faint light of the decrescent moon , that seemed to be upside down in the sky , falling on the white rocks , and on the whitened branches torn down by the winter 's storms , lying like bleached bones upon the ground before us . `` Now , '' said Balsamides to the negro , `` no one can hear us . You have one chance of life . Tell us at once where we can find the Russian Effendi whose property you stole and sold to Marchetto in the bazaar . ''