two o'clock
He had no desire to stop so long as their way was lighted ahead of them . It seemed to him that the world was becoming brighter and the forest gloom less cheerless as they dropped that evil valley of Tavish 's farther and farther behind them . Then the moon began to fade , like a great lamp that had burned itself out of oil , and darkness swept over them like huge wings . It was two o'clock when they camped and built a fire . So , day after day , they continued into the North . At the end of his tenth day -- the sixth after leaving Tavish 's -- David felt that he was no longer a stranger in the country of the big snows . He did not say as much to Father Roland , for to express such a thought to one who had lived there all his life seemed to him to be little less than a bit of sheer imbecility .