noon
Where Wentworth forded a waist-deep stream he had lain down to rest on the sand of the opposite bank . The trail started toward the south . By midforenoon Thumb noted with a grin that he was traveling due east . At noon he overtook Wentworth , mired to the middle in a marl bed , supporting himself on a half sunken spruce . Laying aside his rifle , the breed cut a pole with his belt ax and after some difficulty succeeded in dragging the engineer to solid ground . Wentworth was muttering and mumbling about a Russian sable coat , and Thumb had to support him as he bound him to a spruce tree . On the edge of the lake Corporal Downey picked up the trail .