two o'clock
Long before I came to the smoky , silent camp I heard the monotonous roaring of my lions , pacing their shadowy dens . A little after sunrise on the day set for our first performance , Speed sauntered into my dressing-room in excellent humor , saying that not only had the village of Paradise already filled up with the peasantry of Finistère and Morbihan , but every outlying hamlet from St. Julien to Pont Aven was overflowing ; that many had even camped last night along the roadside ; in short , that the country was unmistakably aroused to the importance of the Anti-Prussian Republican circus and the Flying Mermaid of Ker-Ys . I listened to him almost indifferently , saying that I was very glad for the governor 's sake , and continued to wash a deep scratch on my left arm , using salt water to allay the irritation left by Aïcha 's closely pared claws -- the vixen . But the scratch had not poisoned me ; I was in fine physical condition ; rehearsals had kept us all in trim ; our animals , too , were in good shape ; and the machinery started without a creak when , an hour later , Byram himself opened the box-office at the tent-door and began to sell tickets to an immense crowd for the first performance , which was set for two o'clock that afternoon . I had had an unpleasant hour 's work with the lions , during which Marghouz , a beast hitherto lazy and docile , had attempted to creep behind me . Again I had betrayed irritation ; again the lions saw it , understood it , and remembered . Aïcha tore my sleeve ; when I dragged Timour Melek 's huge jaws apart he endured the operation patiently , but as soon as I gave the signal to retire he sprang snarling to the floor , mane on end , and held his ground , just long enough to defy me .