noon
`` But surely , my dear sister , in this case I was fighting in a good cause , '' said Stanley , laughing . `` If we have rid the country of these man-eaters , we shall have rendered an essential service to our neighbours , and the blacks , I hope , will show their gratitude . '' We soon retired to rest , and slept more soundly than we had done for many nights , though we kept a guard as usual , as our fortification was not entirely completed . The next morning we set to work to finish it , and by noon had entirely surrounded it with an impenetrable hedge . It took us some time longer to fasten the prickly branches to the top of our fence . While we were at work , a party of blacks arrived from the village , bringing with them a large quantity of elephant and rhinoceros flesh . They came to thank our chief , they said , for the service he had done them , though they feared that there were still other lions in the neighbourhood .