midnight
If a rising is really meditated it may occur at any moment , although I do not believe it is exactly what you may call imminent ; were it so , I think we should have heard a little more about it . Still , there is nothing like being prepared in good time ; in a case like this it is better to be a couple of months too early than a day too late . '' So it was arranged , and for the next half-hour we were all busy discussing the question of what precisely I should bring out with me , and preparing a detailed list of our various requirements ; for a wagon journey to Port Elizabeth was no trifling matter , the distance across the veld and by road being about one hundred and seventy miles , and occupying the best part of nine days each way . By the time that we had finished it was past midnight , and I went to bed and slept soundly , for , to be quite truthful , I had no very profound belief in the threatened rising , despite the ominous departure of the Griquas ; such things had happened before -- were constantly happening , in fact -- and nothing ever came of it , although more or less alarming rumours were continually arising , nobody quite knew how . As a matter of fact I felt quite easy in my mind about it , for I was confident that , even should a rising take place , it would be suppressed very promptly ; and in any case I did not believe for a moment that the savages would dare to penetrate so far into the colony as Bella Vista , or even as far as Triannon : while the `` scare '' , trifling and unfounded as I believed it to be , afforded me an excellent excuse for a trip to Port Elizabeth , which town I had not visited for more than six months , my father having accompanied the wagon on the previous journey ; also it justified me in my determination to purchase a new rifle -- one of the very newest and most up-to-date weapons that I could possibly procure , the rifle which I had been using for the previous six years being a flintlock affair , and worn out at that . On the following morning we were astir at an even earlier hour than usual , for , the trek oxen not having been worked for some time , I was anxious to make a good start and get well on my way before the heat of the day set in . My mother expressed some surprise at the apparently hurried character of the expedition ; but when it was explained that Mr Lestrange had run out of ammunition , while our own stock was running low , she was at once satisfied , for at that time hunting was practically the only amusement open to the farmer , and it was also imperatively necessary that he should be amply provided with means to check the increase of the more predatory animals in the neighbourhood of his farm .