Hour of the Tiger

The Hour of the Tiger is the pre-dawn setting for the second wave of ninja infiltrating the city. The scene fixes the action at four o’clock, an hour before dawn, and uses the hour’s darkness to frame two simultaneous approaches.

Time and Setting

The city bells sound at the middle of the Hour of the Tiger. The precise time—four of the clock, an hour before dawn—anchors the infiltration in the final stretch of night.

The Second Wave

At the signal of the hour, twenty armed men emerge silently from a large, disused culvert that had once carried the garden’s rivulets. They spread among the shrubs and bushes and remain nearly invisible. At the same time, another group of twenty climbs by ropes and grapples to attack the battlement overlooking the forecourt and garden.

Narrative Function

The Hour of the Tiger gives the assault a precise temporal marker: the bells coincide with the arrival of the second wave. The paired routes—through the old watercourse and up the battlement—make the attack feel coordinated, while the hour before dawn supplies the cover for both groups’ approach.