midnight
The effect was as if the mountains conspired to thrust back the traveler toward the west and the Yukon . Smoke wondered how many men in the past , approaching as he had approached , had been turned aside by that forbidding aspect . La Perle had not been turned aside , but , then , La Perle had crossed over from the eastern slope of the Rockies . Until midnight Smoke maintained a huge fire for the guidance of Shorty . And in the morning , waiting with camp broken and dogs harnessed for the first break of light , Smoke took up the pursuit . In the narrow pass of the canyon , his lead-dog pricked up its ears and whined . Then Smoke came upon the Indians , six of them , coming toward him .