About eight o’clock
At last the eastern sky began to turn grey , and John rose , shook the dew from his hat and clothes , and limped off as well as his half-frozen limbs would allow to catch the horses , which were standing together some yards away , looking huge and ghost-like in the mist . By sunrise he had managed to saddle them up , and they started once more . This time , however , he was obliged to lift Jess on to the saddle . About eight o'clock they halted and ate their little remaining food , and then went on , slowly enough , for the horses were almost as tired as they were , and it was necessary to husband them if they were to reach Mooifontein by dark . At midday they rested for an hour and a half , and then , feeling almost worn out , continued their journey , reckoning that they could not be more than sixteen or seventeen miles from Mooifontein . It was about two hours after this that the catastrophe happened . The course they were following ran down the side of one land wave , then across a little swampy _ sluit _ , and up the opposite slope .