nine o’clock
Their numbers seemed even greater , perhaps owing to the influx of the stragglers of the tribe . Fires lighted at intervals formed a girdle of flame round the base of the mountain , so that when darkness fell , Maunganamu appeared to rise out of a great brasier , and to hide its head in the thick darkness . Five hundred feet below they could hear the hum and the cries of the enemy 's camp . At nine o'clock the darkness being very intense , Glenarvan and John Mangles went out to reconnoiter before embarking the whole party on this critical journey . They made the descent noiselessly , and after about ten minutes , arrived on the narrow ridge that crossed the native lines , fifty feet above the camp . All went well so far . The Maories , stretched beside the fires , did not appear to observe the two fugitives .