One o'clock
`` I suppose , '' said Ranger of the Fifth , `` this will knock all of us out of the sports , too ? '' Fellows looked blank at the suggestion . Yet a moment 's reflection showed that Ranger was right . One o'clock was the daily training hour in the playing-fields , and Saturday afternoon four weeks hence was the date fixed for the School sports . It took some days for Railsford 's house to accommodate itself to the new order of things imposed upon it . Indeed , it took twenty-four hours for Grandcourt generally to comprehend the calamity which had befallen the disgraced house . When one o'clock arrived on the first afternoon , and neither Ainger , Wake , Wignet , Tilbury , Herapath , nor the other familiar frequenters of the playing-field , put in an appearance , speculation began to pass about as to the cause of their absence .