about nine o'clock
`` That 'll do , '' says Jim . `` We 'll be up round the old stockyard after breakfast to-morrow . You , Jerry , come with us . '' It was a fresh breezy autumn morning in April , when the four sallied forth , about nine o'clock , for their hunt . The old stockyard stood in the bush , a hundred yards from the corner of the big paddock fence , and among low rolling ranges and gullies , thickly timbered with gum , cherry , and sheoak : a thousand parrots flew swiftly in flocks , whistling and screaming from tree to tree , while wattled-birds and numerous other honeyeaters clustered on the flowering basksias . The spurwinged plover and the curlew ran swiftly among the grass , and on a tall dead tree white cockatoos and blue cranes watched the intruders curiously . Alice and Sam rode together soberly , and before them were Halbert and Jim , just up , ready for the chase .