nearly eight o'clock
He was still in the shade of the great heights that lay between him and the Eastern coast , and hurried while the day was cool . Then the sun leapt up behind the hazy summits above Biguglia . The abbé looked at his huge silver watch . It was nearly eight o'clock . When he was near to the entrance of the defile he stood in the middle of the road and gave , in his high clear voice , the cry of the goat-herd calling his flock . He gave it twice , and then repeated it . If there were any in the macquis within a mile of him they could not fail to see him as he stood on the dusty road in the sunlight .