the
hour of three o'clock
The patrols had by now worked together several times , and had become brothers in arms . The old foolish feuds between them were completely forgotten , and when Dick and his friends crossed Quay Flat the wharf-rats would now swarm out , not with sticks for a ` slug , ' but with salutes and eager inquiries as to progress in this or that game dear to the hearts of Boy Scouts . But it is not with this Easter-Monday scouting-run of the combined patrols that we are about to deal . We shall go straight away to the hour of three o'clock on that afternoon , when a very memorable and exciting experience for the two patrol-leaders began to unfold itself . Mr. Elliott had set his band of scouts the hardest task of the day . He himself had put on the irons , and was laying the track . He had warned them that it would be a tough test -- something to really try them -- and so it proved .