noon
He said he would go by Tadoussac ; and the landlord found a carriole driver , with a tough little Canadian horse , who agreed to go the whole way to Chicoutimi with him . After an early lunch the man came , with the low-bodied sledge , set on runners of solid wood , and deeply bedded with bearskins for the lap and back . The day was still and sunny , like the day before , and the air which drove keenly against his face , with the rush of the carriole , sparkled with particles of frost that sometimes filled it like a light shower of snow . The drive was so short that he reached St. Joachim at noon , and he decided to push on part of the way to Baie St. Paul after dinner . His host at St. Joachim approved of that . `` You goin ' have snow to-night and big drift to-morrow , '' he said , and he gave his driver the name of an habitant whom they could stop the night with . The driver was silent , and he looked sinister ; Northwick thought how easily the man might murder him on that lonely road and make off with the money in his belt ; how probably he would do it if he dreamed such wealth was within his grasp .