about eleven o'clock
Once , when the firing was hottest , thinking , I suppose , to catch us napping , an attempt was made to climb the ladder ; but Dunlop , who was on watch , put a bullet through the first fellow 's head , and by the yell that followed I suspect that in his fall he swept all the others off the ladder . Anyhow , there was no repetition of the trial . The heat was fearful , and Dunlop and I suffered a good deal from thirst , for there was not much water left in the bottle , and we wanted that to pour down Ned 's throat from time to time , and to sop his bandages with . Ned got delirious about eleven o'clock , and we had great trouble in holding him down . The last drop of water was finished in the night , and we should have had a terrible day of it if you had not arrived . And now let us hear what the surgeon says about poor Ned . '' The doctor 's report was not consoling ; the wound was a very severe one , the collar-bone had been smashed in fragments ; but the high state of fever was even a more serious matter than the wound .