about noon
`` Well , you saw what he did , in the end ; took me up there , and lowered me to that terrible ledge , saying he was going to leave me there to starve ; and that when the buzzards came flocking around me , and I was wild for a bite to eat , perhaps I 'd feel a little like telling him what he was bound to know , for he promised to come and ask me every day . '' `` This was when ? '' asked Thad . `` I think it must have been about noon when they lowered me at the end of a rope , '' Aleck went on to explain . `` One of the men knew about that ledge , and the idea seemed to tickle Kracker more than a little . They just shoved me over , and it was keep a tight hold on that rope for me , or a drop to the cruel rocks away down at the foot of the precipice . Then , late in the afternoon I saw you come into the valley far below .