about two o'clock
In one place there was a gap that Foster thought was Liddesdale , and his path led across the latter towards the head of Tyne . Not a house broke the sweep of withered grass and heath , and only the crying of plover that circled in the distance disturbed the silence . Foster liked the open trail and went on with a light step , until as he crossed the watershed and the country sloped to the south , he came to a wire fence and saw the black mouth of a railway tunnel beneath . It was now about two o'clock , and feeling hungry , he sat down where a bank cut off the wind , and took out some food he had bought at Hawick . He did not know if he found the shining rails and row of telegraph posts that curved away down the hillside out of place , but somehow they made him feel foolishly unconventional . His boots and mackintosh were wet , he was lunching on sweet biscuits and gingerbread , and did not know where he would spend the night , although it would not be at a comfortable hotel . Until he saw the tunnel , he had felt at home in the wilds and might have done so yet , had he , for example , been driving a flock of sheep ; but the railway was disturbing .