nine o'clock
This course , he calculated by allowing for wind and lateral drift , would carry _ Nissr _ directly toward the site of the still half-mythical Iron Mountains and the Bara Jannati Shahr . He now returned to his cabin , locked himself in and -- pondering over a few khat leaves -- passed the remainder of the afternoon sunk in deep abstraction . Evening and night still found him in profound thought , while the giant air-liner steadily rushed into the south-east , bearing him and the Legion onward toward dim regions now veiled in purple darkness under strange stars . At nine o'clock he ordered _ Nissr _ stopped , and had the body of Dr. Lombardo sent down with six men in the nacelle , for burial . No purpose could be served by keeping the body , and all unnecessary complications had to be dispensed with before the morrow . Lombardo , who had fully atoned for his fault by having given his life in the service of the now depleted Legion , was buried in his service-uniform , in a fairly deep grave on which the Legionaries heaped a great tumulus of sand . The only witnesses were the Arabian Desert stars ; the only requiem the droning of the helicopters far above , where _ Nissr _ hung with her gleaming lights like other , nearer stars in the dense black sky .