eleven
o'clock
Who can say ? '' -LSB- 1 -RSB- Before we had finished examining these extraordinary relics of remote antiquity , Infadoos came up , and having saluted the `` Silent Ones '' by lifting his spear , asked us if we intended entering the `` Place of Death '' at once , or if we would wait till after we had taken food at mid-day . If we were ready to go at once , Gagool had announced her willingness to guide us . As it was not later than eleven o'clock -- driven to it by a burning curiosity -- we announced our intention of proceeding instantly , and I suggested that , in case we should be detained in the cave , we should take some food with us . Accordingly Gagool 's litter was brought up , and that lady herself assisted out of it . Meanwhile Foulata , at my request , stored some `` biltong , '' or dried game-flesh , together with a couple of gourds of water , in a reed basket with a hinged cover . Straight in front of us , at a distance of some fifty paces from the backs of the Colossi , rose a sheer wall of rock , eighty feet or more in height , that gradually sloped upwards till it formed the base of the lofty snow-wreathed peak , which soared into the air three thousand feet above us .