nine o'clock
He had mastered the idea that it will not do to be keen by fits and starts : you must be on the spot all the time . So he took away from Locking that afternoon one fact which he had discovered about his grandmother 's lodger -- the boots from a London hotel -- that the tips on his heels were screwed on , whereas the common method is nailing . The Monday week after Chippy 's visit to Locking was Easter Monday and a general holiday . The Wolves and the Ravens made it a grand field-day , and they were on the heath by nine o'clock , each with a day 's food in pocket or haversack , and a grand scouting-run ahead -- a run which had been planned from point to point by Mr. Elliott , who accompanied them . The patrols had by now worked together several times , and had become brothers in arms . The old foolish feuds between them were completely forgotten , and when Dick and his friends crossed Quay Flat the wharf-rats would now swarm out , not with sticks for a ` slug , ' but with salutes and eager inquiries as to progress in this or that game dear to the hearts of Boy Scouts . But it is not with this Easter-Monday scouting-run of the combined patrols that we are about to deal .