nine o'clock
Instead , Bruce had preferred to stroll out in search of friends . Top-Sergeant Mahan , by the way , would have felt highly flattered had he chanced to get a glimpse of the dispatch Bruce had brought to the colonel . For it bore out Mahan 's own theory regarding the presence of spies at or near the village , and it bade the `` Here-We-Come '' colonel use every means for tracing them . It added the information that three troop-trains with nine engines were to pass through the village that night on their way to the trenches , and that the trains were due at the junction at nine o'clock or shortly thereafter . The mairie was on the other side of the street from the estaminet . Incidentally , it was on the shady side of the street -- for which reason Bruce , -- being wise , and the day being hot , -- remained on that side , until he should come opposite the bench where his friends awaited him . His course , thus , brought him directly past the church .