half past
eleven
`` No doubt , '' answered Mr. Smith , `` and I think we had better follow the road that it has made for us . '' It was indeed this gash that Harry Horn had selected for our ascent . Our feet found lodgment in the firmer earth which had resisted the passage of the monster rock . Our task thus became much easier , and our progress was in a straight line upward , so that toward half past eleven we reached the upper border of the `` slide . '' Before us , less than a hundred feet away , but towering a hundred feet straight upwards in the air rose the rocky wall which formed the final crest , the last defence of the Great Eyrie . From this side , the summit of the wall showed capriciously irregular , rising in rude towers and jagged needles . At one point the outline appeared to be an enormous eagle silhouetted against the sky , just ready to take flight .