eleven
at night
`` Although you have not been near Ronda for five years , '' said the Spanish Commandant severely to Dennis Shere , `` the face of the country has not changed . You are certainly the most suitable officer I can select , since I am told you are well acquainted with the neighbourhood . You will ride therefore to-day to Olvera and deliver this sealed letter to the officer commanding the temporary garrison there . But it is not necessary that it should reach him before eleven at night , so that you will still have an hour or two before you start in which you can renew your acquaintanceships , as I can very well understand you are anxious to do . '' Dennis Shere 's reluctance , however , was now changed into alacrity . For the road to Olvera ran past the gates of that white-walled , straggling residencía where he had planned to spend this first evening that he was stationed at Ronda . On his way back from his colonel 's quarters he even avoided those squares and streets where he would be likely to meet with old acquaintances , foreseeing their questions as to why he was now a Spanish subject and wore the uniform of a captain of Spanish cavalry and by seven o'clock he was already riding through the Plaza de Toros upon his mission .