about 3 A.M.
and seeing my birds winging their way from the coverts , far out of shot . Tim Connor and I got ten couple between us ; it might have been thirty if my neighbours had not boycotted me , for what I could only suppose was the slackness of their hounds . I was dog-tired that night , having walked enough for three men , and I slept the deep , insatiable sleep that I had earned . It was somewhere about 3 A.M. that I was gradually awakened by a continuous knocking , interspersed with muffled calls . Great-Uncle McCarthy had never before given tongue , and I freed one ear from blankets to listen . Then I remembered that Peter had told me the sweep had promised to arrive that morning , and to arrive early . Blind with sleep and fury I went to the passage window , and thence desired the sweep to go to the devil .