ten o'clock
There is no use in repeating it , for it was only a cruel little sentence , rapped out before thinking , that made him flush to the roots of his hair . He kept himself to himself for three days , and then put in for two days ' leave to go shooting near a Canal Engineer 's Rest House about thirty miles out . He got his leave , and that night at Mess was noisier and more offensive than ever . He said that he was `` going to shoot big game '' , and left at half-past ten o'clock in an ekka . Partridge -- which was the only thing a man could get near the Rest House -- is not big game ; so every one laughed . Next morning one of the Majors came in from short leave , and heard that The Boy had gone out to shoot `` big game . '' The Major had taken an interest in The Boy , and had , more than once , tried to check him in the cold weather .