about noon
` I have just to make a call here , ' said Dare , when they were opposite the barrack-entrance on the outskirts of the town , where wheel-tracks and a regular chain of hoof-marks left by the departed batteries were imprinted in the gravel between the open gates . ` I shall not be a moment . ' Havill stood still while his companion entered and asked the commissary in charge , or somebody representing him , when the new batteries would arrive to take the place of those which had gone away . He was informed that it would be about noon . ` Now I am at your service , ' said Dare , ` and will help you to rearrange your design by the new intellectual light we have acquired . ' They entered Havill 's office and set to work . When contrasted with the tracing from Somerset 's plan , Havill 's design , which was not far advanced , revealed all its weaknesses to him .