about four in the afternoon
Long Tom worked all day . They got into a corner where the guns of the battery could not hit them or him , and there was his long muzzle looking towards the sky , and sending half a hundredweight of iron up into the clouds , and plunging down a mile off into the French lines . And , at every shot , the man on horseback made signals to let the gunners know where the shot fell . At last , about four in the afternoon , they threw a forty-eight-pound shot slap into the commander-in-chief 's tent , a mile and a half behind trenches . Down comes a glittering aide-de-camp as hard as he can gallop . `` Colonel Dujardin , what are you about , sir ? YOUR BASTION has thrown a round shot into the commander-in-chief 's tent . ''