two o'clock
A scream , a scream to have made the angels shudder , to have inspired pity in the devils of Hell , burst from him . Two yellow hands leaped at his throat ... Gaston Max , from his silken bed in the catacombs of Ho-Pin , watched the hand of his watch which lay upon the little table beside him . Already it was past two o'clock , and no sign had come from Soames ; a hundred times his imagination had almost tricked him into believing that the door was opening ; but always the idea had been illusory and due to the purple shadow of the lamp-shade which overcast that side of the room and the door . He had experienced no difficulty in arranging with Gianapolis to occupy the same room as formerly ; and , close student of human nature though he was , he had been unable to detect in the Greek 's manner , when they had met that night , the slightest restraint , the slightest evidence of uneasiness . His reception by Ho-Pin had varied scarce one iota from that accorded him on his first visit to the cave of the golden dragon . The immobile Egyptian had brought him the opium , and had departed silently as before .