eleven o'clock
The snow ceased at nightfall and work was instantly resumed by aid of the torches ; again the desperate scraping of snow , bundled men at fires and sheltered by windbreaks , the drilling of holes in the frozen ground , the reliefs every two hours , the thawing of nipped fingers and toes and noses . All night hot food and boiling coffee were served at intervals to the cold and hungry labourers . At nine o'clock next morning two hundred yards of dirt went spraying into the air , with the subsequent struggle in the long hole : fresnos bearing forth what earth was loose and what the plows broke out ; the horses , blinded by the glare of snow , staggering forward under curse and lash ; the men toiling in a sort of grim fury . A maximum of effort finished one hundred and fifty yards more by eleven o'clock . Carrigan ordered all work to stop until nine next morning . `` The men are ` all in ' , '' he told Lee . `` We 'll crack this last nut to-morrow . ''