noon
captain or no captain . '' With that brief soliloquy Pike slid down from his perch , and for the second time that morning made his way down the hillside and back to camp . Here he found Kate and the children as full of eager and anxious inquiry about papa as before , and could only comfort them by saying that the mules must have run far to the south and were proving more than ordinarily obstinate about coming back . Still , he said , papa is sure to be here before noon , and indeed he hoped , and more than half believed , that such would be the case . Knowing the danger that menaced his little ones , it could not be that the captain would not use every endeavor to get back to them before the Indians could reach the Pass . Jim had obeyed his instructions to the letter . There were the two big rolls of blankets , securely strapped ; there were the supplies ; the bacon , bread , _ frijoles _ , coffee , sugar , canned meats and vegetables .