eleven o'clock
The sun was now high overhead . Odd sounds as of dragging objects began to be heard from the top of the rock , and this was kept up for fully an hour . Neither Pike nor Jim could imagine what it meant , but neither dared for an instant to leave his post . It must have been eleven o'clock and after , when , all of a sudden , a black shadow rushed through the air , and Pike started almost to his feet as a huge log fell from above and bounded from the jagged rocks in front of them . Then came another , tumbling one upon the other , wedging and jostling , and speedily rising in a huge pile several feet high . More and more they came ; then smaller ones ; then loose dry branches and roots in quantities . And then , as the great heap grew and grew , an awful thought occurred to the old trooper .