six in the evening
`` Agreed , '' said Robin . Hurrying forward , they came upon a remarkable and picturesque scene . The engineers of the Great Eastern had chosen the previous day for the laying of the mile of land-line , with which the cable was to be connected . The burying of it in its appointed home had commenced at half-past six in the evening and had continued all through the night . It was about 2 a.m. when our adventurers came upon the scene . The trench was cut through ground on which a number of soldiers were encamped , whose white tents looked ghostlike in the feeble star-light , and lines of naked natives were seen , waving lanterns , pushing along the mysterious cable , or , with hands and feet busily pressing down the loose soil that covered the buried portion . The whole operation was conducted with a superabundance of noise , for the burying of a rope in a trench three feet deep was in itself such a tremendous joke to the coolies , that they entered upon it with much excitement as a sort of unusual piece of fun .