four o'clock
`` Sahib , can you expect us to endure this ? '' they cried reproachfully , as the round-shot crashed among them . `` We are here to die , but let us die fighting , not crouching on the ground ! '' Not until four o'clock was he able to seem to listen to their appeals , and this was only because Chand Singh , apparently emboldened by the passivity of his foe , deliberately advanced four guns to a spot little beyond the reach of their musketry , and began to try the range . Charteris detected at once the bait which was to draw him from his position and give the Granthis their long-sought opportunity , and set his teeth hard . The line should not advance . Turning his back on Bishen Ram , whose protests were very nearly becoming threats , he called up the heads of two Darwani clans , of late the fiercest and most troublesome of his robber-vassals .