about four o'clock
Soon everything was packed in the machine but enough food for their mid-day lunch , which was eaten under the shade of the trees . When the time to leave came at last , no one seemed happier or more eager than Len Haley . An instinctive fear seemed to possess the lad that his uncle would be prowling about the mountains and apprehend him when he least expected it ; hence , to go flying away to Baltimore in a big automobile was to him the acme of delight . The early afternoon was spent at the camp , but about four o'clock , when the sun was on the decline , and the shadows in the valley had commenced to lengthen , Gerald , at the wheel of the big Ajax , sent the machine slowly across the plateau toward the eastern mountain . As the car moved along the girls burst into a song , and a moment later Jim and Gerald joined in . For a few moments they fairly made the welkin ring . Then as the machine was plunging down a steep descent the concert came to an abrupt end , and the inmates clutched the rails to keep from pitching forward .