about four in the afternoon
So we rode warily , on the look-out for French vedettes , and reaching Beasain a little before two in the morning took up a comfortable position on the hillside above the junction of the roads . At dawn we shifted into better shelter -- a shepherd 's hut , dilapidated and roofless -- and eked out a long day with tobacco and a greasy pack of cards . A few bullock carts passed along the road below us , the most of them bound westward , and perhaps half-a-dozen peasants on mule-back . At about four in the afternoon a French patrol trotted by . As the evening drew on I began to feel anxious . A little before sunset I sent off one of my ruffians -- Alonso something-or-other -LRB- I forget his magnificent surname -RRB- -- to scout along the road . He had been gone half-an-hour when his fellow , Juan Gallegos , flung down his cards in the dusk -- the more readily perhaps because he held a weak hand -- and pricked up his ears .