three in the afternoon
`` Do not let us lose any time , then , '' said Mrs Barnett , rising ; `` give the signal to start at once . '' The Lieutenant needed no urging . Had he been alone , or accompanied by a few men as energetic as himself , he would have pressed on day and night ; but he was obliged to make allowance for the fatigue of others , although he never spared himself . He therefore granted a few hours of rest to his little party , and it was not until three in the afternoon that they again set out . Jaspar Hobson was not mistaken in prophesying a change in the weather . It came very soon . During the afternoon of the same day the mist became thicker , and assumed a yellowish and threatening hue .