two o'clock
He appeared to avoid all inhabited places , feeling more secure in the deserted tracts . Allahabad was thence only a dozen miles off in a north-easterly direction . They halted once more under a banana-tree , the fruit of which , as wholesome as bread and `` as succulent as cream , '' as they said , was highly appreciated by our travellers . At two o'clock they entered a dense forest , which they had to traverse for some miles . The guide preferred to travel in the shade of the woods . So far at any rate they had encountered nothing unpleasant , and there was every reason to suppose that the journey would be accomplished without accident , when the elephant , after a few premonitory symptoms , stopped suddenly . It was then four o'clock in the afternoon .