nearly four o'clock
If I could only find the ocean again all would be clear , for I knew one could see the island of Groix from the cliffs . I laid down my gun , and kneeling behind a rock lighted a pipe . Then I looked at my watch . It was nearly four o'clock . I might have wandered far from Kerselec since daybreak . Standing the day before on the cliffs below Kerselec with Goulven , looking out over the sombre moors among which I had now lost my way , these downs had appeared to me level as a meadow , stretching to the horizon , and although I knew how deceptive is distance , I could not realize that what from Kerselec seemed to be mere grassy hollows were great valleys covered with gorse and heather , and what looked like scattered boulders were in reality enormous cliffs of granite . `` It 's a bad place for a stranger , '' old Goulven had said : `` you 'd better take a guide ; '' and I had replied , `` I shall not lose myself . ''