midnight
`` Let us hope not , '' I said . `` We may come upon some fruit gardens where we can find enough to keep us from starvation . But if we must fast , then I warrant we , being Englishmen , can endure our pangs for a day . Time is passing ; 't is gone midnight , if I guess right , and since move we must , I speak for moving at once . '' No other course suggesting itself , we set off , and , having the good luck to strike a road , we marched along in dogged silence for what must have been a couple of hours . We passed but one house , and that was in total darkness , and if any person in it had been awake , our passage would not have been heard , for we were all barefooted but three , myself and two others . After pausing a while to rest , we set off again , and tramped on until there was a hint of daybreak in the sky .