about ten o'clock
`` Let us but touch the treasure and you shall share with us . '' `` I want no share -- I 've been repaid , ay , more than repaid , in obtaining my freedom through your instrumentality , and if I can make some return I shall be happy . '' We no longer stopped to discuss the question of working upon his claim , and in less than ten minutes after our return to the hut , we had saddled our horses , and leaving Smith to follow with his oxen , for the purpose of bringing home his half-consumed cart , we started once more towards the still smoking woods . The hot winds of Australia , which begin about ten o'clock in the forenoon , swept over the prairie with a blast that felt like the flames of an extensive conflagration , and yet we heeded it not , for our whole thoughts were fixed , like greedy misers , upon the gold which we were soon to acquire , and we speculated what we should do with our wealth , and how expend it . We urged our panting horses to their utmost speed , and not until the old stockman cried out to us to draw up , or we should exhaust the brutes , did we allow them to take breath . `` There 's no use in being in such a hurry , '' he said , `` because we are near the spot , and have all the afternoon to get home . '' In fact , even while he was speaking he dismounted near Smith 's cart , and we quickly followed his example .