ten o'clock
And Major White moistened his lips with an air of patient toleration for the ways of a sex which had ever been far beyond his comprehension . `` It seems , '' he said , when the carriage had rolled away over the noisy stones , `` that we are in good time . They do not expect him until nearly ten . He has been attempting for some time to get the men to refuse to work , and these same men have written to ask him to meet them at the works at ten o'clock , when Roden is at Utrecht , and Von Holzen is out . There is no question of reaching the works at all . They are going to lie in ambush in a hollow of the Dunes , and knock him on the head about half a mile from here north-east . '' And Major White paused in this great conversational effort to consult a small gold compass attached to his watch-chain .