four in the morning
By the time we had reached Tegucigalpa the twelve mules had increased to twenty , and our stock of rations , instead of diminishing as we consumed them , increased daily . We never asked how he managed it . Possibly , knowing Aiken , it was wiser not to inquire . We broke camp at four in the morning , but in spite of our early start the next day 's advance was marked by the most cruel heat . We had left the shade of the high lands and now pushed on over a plain of dry , burning sand , where nothing grew but naked bushes bristling with thorns , and tall grayish-green cacti with disjointed branching arms . They stretched out before us against the blazing sky , like a succession of fantastic telegraph-poles . We were marching over what had once been the bed of a great lake .