three o'clock
Moore carried his gun into one of the huts and stood it carefully beside his little stretcher-bed . Stanley took the gramophone into another hut , and planked it down somewhat roughly on a table , evidently made by an amateur . Without going outside again , he shouted `` Good night , '' and after that no sound broke the silence , except sundry mutterings from the Irishman , who had discovered an enormous frog under his bed , and his beloved pointer pup inside the blankets serenely sleeping . All the next morning Stanley hung about the camp as one who waited , but it was not until three o'clock that Major Carew rode slowly up to the huts . As he dismounted , briefly acknowledging Stanley 's salute , there was a characteristic absence of all superfluous words . The latter waited until the soldier-servant had led away the mule and another boy relieved the officer of his water-bottle , which he always carried himself , and then he looked hard at the thin , brown , resolute face , with an expression in his eyes that made Carew ask shortly : `` Any news ? '' `` Bad news from England .