eleven o’clock
I should not like you to say afterwards that I have not warned you , '' and he held up the candle so that the light fell on John 's face , and gazed at it in fond farewell . `` Curse it all , '' said John in a fury , `` if that was all you had to say you might have kept in bed , '' and he brought down his lash on the wheelers and away they went with a bound , putting out the prophet 's candle and nearly knocking the prophet himself backwards into the _ sluit _ . The four greys were fresh horses , in good condition and with a light load behind them , so , notwithstanding the bad state of the tracks which they call roads in South Africa , John made good progress . By eleven o'clock that day he had reached Standerton , a little town upon the Vaal , not far from which , had he but known it , he was destined to meet with a sufficiently striking experience . Here he obtained confirmation of the Bronker 's Spruit disaster , and listened with set face and blazing eyes to the tale of treachery and death which was , as he said , with a parallel in the annals of civilised war . But , after all , what does it matter ? -- a little square of graves at Bronker 's Spruit , a few more widows and a hundred or so of orphans .