nearly two in the afternoon
Shorty kept the fuel supplied and tended the fire , and Joy set the simple table composed of two plates , two cups , two spoons , a tin of mixed salt and pepper , and a tin of sugar . When it came to eating , she and Smoke shared one set between them . They ate out of the same plate and drank from the same cup . It was nearly two in the afternoon when they cleared the crest of the divide and began dropping down a feeder of Squaw Creek . Earlier in the winter some moose-hunter had made a trail up the canyon -- that is , in going up and down he had stepped always in his previous tracks . As a result , in the midst of soft snow , and veiled under later snow falls , was a line of irregular hummocks . If one 's foot missed a hummock , he plunged down through unpacked snow and usually to a fall .