three
o'clock
Noon came ; one o'clock , two o'clock . They had all had luncheon , and Pike had been scrambling up and down the rock like a monkey , and still there was no forward movement of the foe . Every time he looked they were still lounging or squatting , so he judged , about the stunted trees on the knoll , and there was nothing to explain the delay . It must have three o'clock when at last the binocular told him they were again in motion and coming rapidly toward him . He could see the dirty white breech-clouts floating in the breeze and could almost distinguish the forms of the warriors themselves . Leaving his glass on the top of the ledge he slid down to the base again , called quietly to Jim , and the two men set to work to build their breastwork . Bowlders big and little , rocks of every possible shape and size were all around them , and in three-quarters of an hour they had a stout parapet fully four feet high , whose loopholes commanded the approach up the hillside , and yet were secure from fire from above , below or either flank .