about ten o'clock
`` After laying our heads together , the Colonel went back to the artillery lines and spent three hours talking to the Battery Major , and I looted a dozen three-pounder rockets of var-i-ous colours out of the stores . In the afternoon the Colonel called all his officers together , and kept the blighted motorcycle dispatch riders busy buzzing up and down the line with messages , till late in the evening . '' ` I have called you gentlemen together , ' he says to his officer , ` in order to ask you to corporate with me . I shall fire some rockets from the slag heap to-night about ten o'clock . On the first of these signals the Germans will open a very heavy cannonade on our trenches . I 'll trouble you to have your men all in the dug-outs , and under cover at a quarter to ten ! ' `` That night , soon after the Colonel , Tommy and I started off for the slag heap in the dark , taking with us a bundle of rockets .