24 minutes to 10
o'clock
He climbed up out of the shell hole and swiftly passed the next square as the shells began falling behind him . Had Hal , off there to the right four squares away , now , as good luck as he ? Or , was the French fire opening a path for no one there now ? By the ceasing of the shells on this square it was 24 minutes to 10 o'clock -- the hour when the French forces would stream over the top . And for ten minutes , upon the square , the French fire would cease . That was because it was upon this square that Hal and Chester -- if both survived to reach it -- would meet . It was under the ground in this numbered ten minutes to 10 o'clock -- that the French were hidden , of whom Jean Brosseau had told .