ten o’clock
`` I am afraid that now and then we shall have hail as well , '' added Hobson . `` It wo n't be as deadly as grape-shot , '' replied Long coolly , `` and we have both been through that , and so forwards ! '' `` Forwards , my brave comrade ! '' It was then ten o'clock . The twilight was fading away , dying as if drowned in the mists or quenched by the wind and the rain . There was still , however , some light , and the Lieutenant struck his flint , and consulted his compass , passing a piece of burning touchwood over it , and then , drawing his cloak more closely around him , he plunged after the Sergeant across the unprotected plain . At the first step , both were flung violently to the ground , but they managed to scramble up , and clinging to each other with their backs bent like two old crippled peasants , they struck into a kind of ambling trot .