one o'clock
* * * * * What happened then to the remaining villagers could be heard echoing for miles through the forest in the shrieks and wails of the tortured ones . One can not write of unnamable things , unprintable deeds . The screams lasted till noon . At one o'clock the punitive expedition had departed , leaving the Silent Pools to their silence . The houses of the village had been destroyed and trampled out . The sward lay covered with shapeless remains , and scarcely had the last of the expedition departed , staggering and half drunk with the delirium of their deeds , than from the blue above , like a stone , dropped a vulture . A vulture drops like a stone , with wings closed till it reaches within a few yards of the ground ; then it spreads its wings and , with wide-opened talons , lights on its prey .