noon
On his advice the drive had been divided into five herds of two thousand , he contending that it was dangerous , as well as injurious to the sheep , to keep more than that number together . The others were following at intervals of a few days . Larkin had left the leaders just north of the hills that formed the hooked southern end of the Big Horn Mountains , and expected that in two days ' time they would have come north almost to the junction of Kirby Creek and the Big Horn , near where it was calculated to cross them . After grazing his horse for an hour at noon , and taking a bite to eat himself , Larkin pushed on , and , in a short time , made out a faint , whitish mist rising against the horizon of hills . It was the dust of his leaders . Presently , in the far distance , a man appeared on horseback making toward him , and Bud wondered if anything had happened . His fears were partially justified when he discovered the horseman to be Sims , and were entirely confirmed when he had conversed with the herder .