The soldiers kept stirring all day in the bottom of the valley , now changing guard , now in patrolling parties hunting among the rocks . These lay round in so great a number , that to look for men among them was like looking for a needle in a bottle of hay ; and being so hopeless a task , it was gone about with the less care . Yet we could see the soldiers pike their bayonets among the heather , which sent a cold thrill into my vitals ; and they would sometimes hang about our rock , so that we scarce dared to breathe . It was in this way that I first heard the right English speech ; one fellow as he went by actually clapping his hand upon the sunny face of the rock on which we lay , and plucking it off again with an oath . `` I tell you it 's ` ot , '' says he ; and I was amazed at the clipping tones and the odd sing-song in which he spoke , and no less at that strange trick of dropping out the letter `` h. '' To be sure , I had heard Ransome ; but he had taken his ways from all sorts of people , and spoke so imperfectly at the best , that I set down the most of it to childishness . My surprise was all the greater to hear that manner of speaking in the mouth of a grown man ; and indeed I have never grown used to it ; nor yet altogether with the English grammar , as perhaps a very critical eye might here and there spy out even in these memoirs . The tediousness and pain of these hours upon the rock grew only the greater as the day went on ; the rock getting still the hotter and the sun fiercer . There were giddiness , and sickness , and sharp pangs like rheumatism , to be supported . I minded then , and have often minded since , on the lines in our Scotch psalm : -- `` The moon by night thee shall not smite , Nor yet the sun by day ; '' and indeed it was only by God 's blessing that we were neither of us sun-smitten . At last , about two , it was beyond men 's bearing , and there was now temptation to resist , as well as pain to thole . For the sun being now got a little into the west , there came a patch of shade on the east side of our rock , which was the side sheltered from the soldiers . `` As well one death as another , '' said Alan , and slipped over the edge and dropped on the ground on the shadowy side . I followed him at once , and instantly fell all my length , so weak was I and so giddy with that long exposure . Here , then , we lay for an hour or two , aching from head to foot , as weak as water , and lying quite naked to the eye of any soldier who should have strolled that way . None came , however , all passing by on the other side ; so that our rock continued to be our shield even in this new position . Presently we began again to get a little strength ; and as the soldiers were now lying closer along the river-side , Alan proposed that we should try a start . I was by this time afraid of but one thing in the world ; and that was to be set back upon the rock ; anything else was welcome to me ; so we got ourselves at once in marching order , and began to slip from rock to rock one after the other , now crawling flat on our bellies in the shade , now making a run for it , heart in mouth . The soldiers , having searched this side of the valley after a fashion , and being perhaps somewhat sleepy with the sultriness of the afternoon , had now laid by much of their vigilance , and stood dozing at their posts or only kept a look-out along the banks of the river ; so that in this way , keeping down the valley and at the same time towards the mountains , we drew steadily away from their neighbourhood . But the business was the most wearing I had ever taken part in . A man had need of a hundred eyes in every part of him , to keep concealed in that uneven country and within cry of so many and scattered sentries .
When we must pass an open place , quickness was not all , but a swift judgment not only of the lie of the whole country , but of the solidity of every stone on which we must set foot ; for the XXXXX was now fallen so breathless that the rolling of a pebble sounded abroad like a pistol shot , and would start the echo calling among the hills and cliffs .
English Ransome afternoon day hour hours look-out night sentries sultriness