five in the afternoon
From under the first footfall the next day it rose again . When the gods , or the elements , or Providence , arranged the world as a fit habitation for man , India and Burma were made the dust-bins . And as water finds its levels , so will dust , earthly and human , the quick and the dead . It was after five in the afternoon . The sun was sinking , hazily but swiftly ; ribbons of scarlet , ribbons of rose , ribbons of violet , lay one upon the other . The sun possessed no definite circle ; a great blinding radiance like metal pouring from the mouth of a blast-furnace . Along the road walked two men , phantom-like .