noon
With anxious eyes he searched the appalling slopes that lifted another 2,000 feet to its majestic summit , now glistening in the radiance of sunset . Where was young Jack Stoddard , official geologist and crack mountaineer of the party ? That morning Professor Prescott and Stoddard had set off together , from Camp No. 4 , at the 22,000-foot level . Mounting laboriously but swiftly , they had reached the present eyrie by noon . There Stoddard had left the leader of the expedition and pushed on alone , to reconnoiter a razor-back ridge that looked as though it might prove the key to the summit . But the afternoon had passed ; the daring young geologist had promised to return in an hour ; and now it was sunset , with still no sign of him . Professor Prescott sighed , and a bitter expression crossed his bronzed , lined face .