two in
the morning
My inventive faculties were bestirred . The LAMP ! No sooner said than the fish was placed on the fire-shovel , and we then took turns to move the shovel backwards and forwards over the lamp . Regardless of that woman 's loud inquiries about the smell , which was in truth , sir , very overpowering , we pursued our joint labours until two in the morning , and then the brute was only _ half _ raw . One penknife was our sole cutlery ; but we managed to cut through the skin , and we devoured the oily stuff like famished hounds , sir . We were ashamed ; but , as the poet truly observes , ` Necessity knows no law , ' and we endured the scurrilous language of the woman when , on the morrow , she found the bottom of the shovel encrusted with dirt and the top thickly coated with grease . That fish saved us , sir . ''