a quarter past nine
About half way down the list of officers , he read : `` Lieut. M. Weyburne -LRB- reported killed at Spion Kop -RRB- . '' Miles was alive : there had been some mistake . The bugle sounded . It was a quarter past nine . He walked out on to the parade-ground with his usual firm step , smiling as he went . Miles was alive . He could have dashed down the barrack-square like a bugler-boy in the lightness of his heart .