six o'clock in the evening
To-morrow night he would sleep in a house . Would he ever come this way again ? In the dark of the morning he struck westwards from the Dinder , across a most tedious neck of land , for Senga and the Blue Nile . At six o'clock in the evening Colin Rayne , a young civilian in the Sudan Service , heard , as he sat on the balcony of the mess at Senga , the rhythmical thud of camels swinging in to their rest in the freshness of the night air . `` There 's our man , '' he exclaimed , and running downstairs , he reached the door just as Hillyard 's twelve camels and his donkeys trooped into the light . Hillyard was riding bareheaded , with his helmet looped to his saddle , a young man , worn thin by sun and exercise , with fair burnt hair , and a brown clean shaven face . Colin Rayne went up to him as he dismounted .