noon
No longer hungry , sitting before a good fire with a well-filled pipe , even the cunning which usually supplies the vacancy failed him ; and Malcolm had to force himself to put down to exhaustion the ungracious way in which his real sacrifice was accepted . In spite of hard work , they had only made thirty miles by sunset the next day , and , there being no shelter , they were obliged to camp early as light snow was falling . Yet it was a good Christmas night around the blazing fire with the special cheer the old mother had packed into the bread-boxes on their komatik . The following morning they did better , reaching the landwash of a big inlet forty miles farther south by noon . Here Malcolm had decided to turn back , for the remainder of the trail to Long Point lay practically over level ice . Just as they were saying good-bye , however , his quick eye detected something black moving out on the bay . `` A fox , Mr. Norman .