two o'clock
I suggested to Nino that it would be wiser if the countryman led the way through the woods , and I followed him . Then the contessina would be behind me , and Nino would bring up the rear . It occurred to me that the mules might outstrip my donkey if I went last , and so I might be left to face the attack , if any came ; whereas , if I were in front , the others could not go any faster than I. The gorge rises steep and precipitous between the lofty mountains on both sides , and it is fortunate that we had some light from the moon , which was still high at two o'clock , being at the full . It is a ghastly place enough . In the days of the Papal States the Serra di Sant ' Antonio , as it is called , was the shortest passage to the kingdom of Naples , and the frontier line ran across its summit . To pass from one dominion to the other it would be necessary to go out of the way some forty or fifty miles , perhaps , unless one took this route ; and the natural consequence was that outlaws , smugglers , political fugitives , and all such manner of men , found it a great convenience .