three o'clock in the afternoon
So sudden was the change from a quiet ordinary leave taking to this hell of combat and bloodshed , that it told upon the nerves more than upon the physical resources . Then , too , they could sum up their position . Here they were beyond all possibility of relief . It was only three o'clock in the afternoon . No train would be due at Mehriab until eleven the next morning . Meanwhile these bloodthirsty barbarians would stick at nothing to reach their victims . These were cut off from human aid as entirely , to all intents and purposes , as though thousands of miles within the interior of Africa instead of in the heart of a theoretically peaceful country , over which waved the British flag .