noon
He saw , in a flash , the red tongue and the gleaming white fangs , and the huge white ruff , each hair of which stuck straight out from the great body . A single shrill shriek of mortal terror resounded through the forest , followed by a dull thud , as man and wolf-dog struck the snow together . And then -- the silence of the barrens . It was long past noon . The storm predicted by Black Moran had been raging for hours , and for hours the little wizened man who had left the cabin before dawn had been plodding at the head of his dogs . At intervals of an hour or so he would stop and strain his eyes to pierce the boiling white smother of snow that curtained the back-trail . Then he would plod on , glancing to the right and to the left .