ten o'clock
I have tried . Once only . '' The sensation of nameless terror and abject fear which I had in vain attempted to strive against overmastered me completely . My long fast -- it was now close upon ten o'clock , and I had eaten nothing since tiffin on the previous day -- combined with the violent and unnatural agitation of the ride had exhausted me , and I verily believe that , for a few minutes , I acted as one mad . I hurled myself against the pitiless sand-slope . I ran round the base of the crater , blaspheming and praying by turns . I crawled out among the sedges of the river-front , only to be driven back each time in an agony of nervous dread by the rifle-bullets which cut up the sand round me -- for I dared not face the death of a mad dog among that hideous crowd -- and finally fell , spent and raving , at the curb of the well .