eight o'clock
The mist was still lingering in the valleys , though the remote peaks had been kindled more than an hour by the touch of sunrise . As Lynde paced up and down the trottoir in front of the Couronne hotel , he drew out his watch from time to time and glanced expectantly towards the hotel entrance . In the middle of the street stood a couple of guides , idly holding the bridles of three mules , two of which were furnished with side-saddles . It was nearly half an hour past the appointment , and the Denhams , who had retired at eight o'clock the night before in order to be fresh for an early start up the mountain , had made no sign . Lynde himself had set the lark an example that morning by breakfasting by candle-light . Here were thirty minutes lost . He quickened his pace up and down in front of the hotel , as if his own rapidity of movement would possibly exert some occult influence in hastening the loiterers ; but another quarter of an hour dragged on without bringing them .