about
one o’clock
`` Not a bit of it , '' he answered ; `` you know you are too asthmatical to get a wink in this atmosphere . I wo n't hear of such a thing . '' `` Then come and sleep with us in the guest-house . '' `` Ca n't be done ; the Sergeant has got a very nasty job down there about one o'clock , and I promised to be handy in case he calls me up , '' and he pointed to the portable field telephone that fortunately we had brought with us from England , which was fixed closed by , adding , `` if only that silly thing had another few hundred yards of wire , I 'd come ; but , you see , it has n't and I must be in touch with the work . '' At this moment the bell tinkled , and Orme made a jump for the receiver through which for the next five minutes he was engaged in giving rapid and to us quite unintelligible directions . `` There you are , '' he said , when he had replaced the mouthpiece on its hook , `` if I had n't been here they would probably have had the roof of the tunnel down and killed some people . No , no ; I ca n't leave that receiver unless I go back to the mine , which I am too tired to do .