one o'clock
`` With that I threw the little code book on the bed , and the old man , after looking through it carefully -LRB- he could read German , our old man -RRB- , got out of bed and started dressing in a businesslike way . '' ` Shut that door , McNab , ' says he , ` and let me have the benefit of your invaluable advice . ' `` All of a sudden I was struck with a brilliant inspiration , and I let the old Colonel have it for what it was worth . `` As it happened the old man thought a mighty lot of it -- such a lot , in fact , that by one o'clock that day he started to imagine the inspiration had come from his own fertile brain . He liked to think that it was his , and , Lord bless ` im , I do n't grudge him the glory . `` After laying our heads together , the Colonel went back to the artillery lines and spent three hours talking to the Battery Major , and I looted a dozen three-pounder rockets of var-i-ous colours out of the stores . In the afternoon the Colonel called all his officers together , and kept the blighted motorcycle dispatch riders busy buzzing up and down the line with messages , till late in the evening . ''