six o'clock sharp
Captain Bingo tries to say something more , but makes a hash of it ; and with eyes that fairly run over , can only grip the kindly hand again and again , assuring its owner , with numerous references to the Living Tinker , that he is the most thundering brick on earth . Then , overthrowing the small table and one of the chairs , he plunges down the narrow iron stairway to get into what he calls his kit . Six minutes later , correct to a buckle and a puttee-fold , he salutes his commanding officer , nodding pleasantly to him from Nixey 's roof , and buckets down the street at a tremendous gallop , the happiest man in Gueldersdorp , with this shout following him : `` My regards to Lady Hannah . And tell her that the Staff dine on gee-gee at six o'clock sharp , and I shall be charmed if she 'll join us . '' The little Olopo River , a mere branch of the bigger river that makes fertile British Baraland , runs from east to west , along the southern side of Gueldersdorp , swelled by innumerable thready water-courses , dry in the blistering winter heat , that the wet season disperses among the foothills that bristle with Brounckers ' artillery . Seen from the altitude of a balloon or a war-kite , the course of the beer-coloured stream , flowing lazily between its high banks sparsely wooded with oak and blue gum , and lavishly clothed with cactus , mimosa , and tree-fern , tall grasses , and thorny creepers , would have looked like a verdant ribbon meandering over the dun-and-ochre-coloured veld , where patches of bluish-green are beginning to spread . The south bank , where the bush grows thinnest , was frequently patronised by picnic-parties , and at all times a place of resort for strolling sweethearts .