noon
Something in his manner pierced through Rhoda 's half delirium and she looked up at him with a faint replica of her old lovely smile that Kut-le had not seen since he had stolen her . He trembled at its beauty and started forward at a tremendous pace . `` I 'll get you to good water by noon , '' he said . At noon they were well up in the mountains by a clear spring fringed with aspens . Watercress grew below it , and high above it were pines and junipers . It was a spot of surpassing loveliness , but Rhoda , tossing and panting , could not know it , Kut-le laid his burden on the ground and Molly drew off her tattered petticoat to lay beneath the feverish head . The young Apache stood looking down at the little figure , so graceful in its boyish abandonment of gesture , so pitiful in its broken unconsciousness .