one o'clock
Go now , and tell thy sister what I have said . Let her answer for thee , for she knows this land and the people of it , and she is wiser than thou . '' Without another word or look at the beautiful pagan face , Victoria went out of the room , and found Hadda waiting to hurry her away . It was after one o'clock when Stephen and Nevill bade each other good night , after a stroll out of the town into the desert . They had built up plans and torn them down again , and no satisfactory decision had been reached , for both feared that , if they attempted to threaten the marabout with their knowledge of his past , he would defy them to do their worst . Without Saidee and Victoria , they could bring forward no definite and visible proof that the great marabout , Sidi El Hadj Mohammed Abd el Kadr , and the disgraced Captain Cassim ben Halim were one . And the supreme difficulty was to produce Saidee and Victoria as witnesses .