about six o’clock
... Frt ! '' At each bush ... Then every evening a stand-to of two or three hours ... A wasted effort . No lions appeared . One evening , however , at about six o'clock , as they were going through a wood of mastic trees , where fat quail , made lazy by the heat were jumping up from the grass , Tartarin thought he heard ... but so far off ... so distorted by the wind ... so faint , the wonderful roar which he had heard so many times back home in Tarascon , behind the menagerie Mitaine . At first he thought he had imagined it , but in a moment , still far distant , but now more distinct , the roaring began again , and this time one could hear , all around , the barking of village dogs ; while , stricken by terror and rattling the boxes of arms and preserves , the camel 's hump trembled . There could be no more doubt ... . It was a lion !