ten
o'clock
Many of the fugitives from the Transvaal had joined , as had most of the young farmers who had been obliged by the hostility of their Dutch neighbours to abandon their homes in the north of Natal , while numbers of all ranks in Maritzburg , Durban , and other towns were giving in their names . All the lads who had come down with Chris had some time before obtained their parents ' consent to join a volunteer corps , or form one among themselves , and as it was evident that the crisis was at hand no objections were raised to their doing so at once . Mrs. King would go down to Durban with her friends , so that there was no need for her son to accompany her . It had been agreed by the other lads that they would all meet at ten o'clock at the hotel where Chris put up , and the party mustered in greater strength than had been expected , for they found that the boys who had preceded them had all waited in the town , and were stopping at the various hotels . They too had been as badly treated by the Boers as the last arrivals , and were all eager to begin work . `` There is no getting a private room here , '' Chris said , `` so we had better go outside the town and talk things over . '' As they went they chatted over their adventures on the road , and great satisfaction was felt among those who had not been present on hearing how Chris had thrashed the Boer , and had gone tip to him in spite of his threat to shoot .