four o'clock
The wind was damp and penetrating ; the roads veritable morasses of mud , and overhead gloomy banks of dark , grey clouds moved sluggishly , the light that was filtered through them giving the landscape a bleak and dreary aspect . In his jaded condition Kenneth soon became a prey to the depression of it . His lightness of heart of some dozen hours ago was now all gone , and not even the knowledge that his mission was well-nigh accomplished sufficed to cheer him . To add to his discomfort a fine rain set in towards four o'clock , and when a couple of hours later he clattered along the road cut through a wooded slope in the direction of Waltham , he was become a very limp and lifeless individual . He noticed not the horsemen moving cautiously among the closely-set trees on either side of the road . It was growing prematurely dark , and objects were none too distinct . And thus it befell that when from the reverie of dejection into which he had fallen he was suddenly aroused by the thud of hoofs , he looked up to find two mounted men barring the road some ten yards in front of him .