six o'clock in the evening
Meanwhile , Harris always kept in advance , but he seemed to observe the depths of the wood , and looked to the right and left , like a man who was not sure of himself -- nor of his road . Mrs. Weldon shut her eyes so as not to see him . After a plain a mile in extent , the forest , without being as dense as in the west , had reappeared , and the little troop was again lost under the great trees . At six o'clock in the evening they had reached a thicket , which appeared to have recently given passage to a band of powerful animals . Dick Sand looked around him very attentively . At a distance winch far surpassed the human height , the branches were torn off or broken . At the same time the herbs , roughly scattered , exhibited on the soil , a little marshy , prints of steps which could not be those of jaguars , or cougars .