three o'clock
My father turned sad and unsatisfied away . `` It serves me right , '' he said to himself ; `` he ought never to have been my son ; and yet , if such men can be brought by hook or by crook into the world , surely the world should not ask questions about the bringing . How cheerless everything looks now that he has left me . '' * * * * * By this time it was three o'clock , and in another few minutes my father came upon the ashes of the fire beside which he and the Professors had supped on the preceding evening . It was only some eighteen hours since they had come upon him , and yet what an age it seemed ! It was well the Ranger had left him , for though my father , of course , would have known nothing about either fire or poachers , it might have led to further falsehood , and by this time he had become exhausted -- not to say , for the time being , sick of lies altogether . He trudged slowly on , without meeting a soul , until he came upon some stones that evidently marked the limits of the preserves .