noon
Still , these men were evidently not to be despised ; and our Gospodar , who is a wise man as well as a valiant , warned us to be prudent , and not to despise our foes over much . We did as he counselled , and in proof we only took ten men , as we had only twenty against us . But then there was at stake much beyond life , and we took no risks . So , as the great clock at Vissarion clanged of noon , the eight fastest runners of the Blue Mountains , together with the Gospodar Rupert and myself , swept out on our journey . It had been signalled to us that the course which the marauders had as yet taken in their flight was a zigzag one , running eccentrically at all sorts of angles in all sorts of directions . But our leader had marked out a course where we might intercept our foes across the main line of their flight ; and till we had reached that region we paused not a second , but went as fast as we could all night long . Indeed , it was amongst us a race as was the Olympic race of old Greece , each one vying with his fellows , though not in jealous emulation , but in high spirit , to best serve his country and the Voivodin Teuta .