about
midday
Then she heard dogs bark and saw lights . The horse stopped and she slid from it , and as she was too exhausted to walk , was supported or carried into a hut , as she thought by women who seemed very much afraid of touching her , after which she seemed to sink into blackness . Rachel woke from her stupor to find herself lying on a bed in a great Kaffir hut that was furnished like a European room , for in it were chairs and a table , also rough window places closed with reed mats that took the place of glass . Through the smoke-hole at the top of the hut struck a straight ray of sunlight , by which she judged that it must be about midday . She began to think , till by degrees everything came back to her , and in that hour she nearly died of horror and of grief . Indeed she was minded to die . There at her side lay a means of death -- the assegai which she had found by the body of the Zulu in Ramah , and none had taken from her .