about nine o’clock
`` Let us leave that to Providence , my dear Dick ; I was wrong in doubting it . It knows better than we , and here we are , returning to places that we had expected never to see again ! '' The surface of the country , which had looked so flat and level when they were coming , now seemed tossed and uneven , like the ocean-billows after a storm ; a long succession of hillocks , that had scarcely settled to their places yet , indented the desert ; the wind blew furiously , and the balloon fairly flew through the atmosphere . The direction taken by our aeronauts differed somewhat from that of the morning , and thus about nine o'clock , instead of finding themselves again near the borders of Lake Tchad , they saw the desert still stretching away before them . Kennedy remarked the circumstance . `` It matters little , '' replied the doctor , `` the important point is to return southward ; we shall come across the towns of Bornou , Wouddie , or Kouka , and I should not hesitate to halt there . '' `` If you are satisfied , I am content , '' replied the Scot , `` but Heaven grant that we may not be reduced to cross the desert , as those unfortunate Arabs had to do !