noon
They wanted us to believe that they had simply come over to spend Christmas with us . Company that way , you ca n't say anything . But the easy manner in which they gravitated around that tub -- not even waiting to be invited -- told a different tale . They were not nearly satisfied by noon . `` Then who should come drifting in as we were sitting down to dinner , but Billy Dunlap and Jim Hale from Quinlin 's camp , thirty miles south on the Cimarron . Dunlap always holed up like a bear in the winter , and several of the boys spilled their coffee at sight of him . He put up a thin excuse just like the rest .