noon
`` I go -- I go , '' clucked the old man . Night was falling , and at any moment Jan Chinn might whistle up his dreaded steed from the darkening scrub . Now for the first time in a long life Bukta disobeyed a lawful command and deserted his leader ; for he did not come back , but pressed to the flat table-top of the hill , and called softly . Men stirred all about him -- little trembling men with bows and arrows who had watched the two since noon . `` Where is he ? '' whispered one . `` At his own place .