About three o'clock
His throat was dry , burning ; there was no saliva in his mouth ; the tongue was as though wooden . And of course this was but the beginning of the torture for him and for the caravan . The thunder announcing the drought resounded incessantly on the horizon 's border . About three o'clock , when the sun passed to the western side of the heavens , Stas ordered the caravan to rise and started at its head towards the east . But now hardly seventy men followed him , and every little while some one of them lay down beside his pack to rise nevermore . The heat decreased a few degrees but was still terrible . The still air was permeated as though with the gas of burning charcoal .