noon
Words were few , either because Morano brooded mainly upon one thought , the theme of which was his lack of bacon , or because he kept his breath to follow his master who , with youth and the morning , was coming out of the hills at a pace not tuned to Morano 's forty years or so . And at the end of these nine miles Morano perceived a house , a little way from the road , on the left , upon rising ground . A mile or so ahead they saw the narrow wood that they had viewed in the morning from the mountain running across the plain . They saw now by the lie of the ground that it probably followed a stream , a pleasant place in which to take the rest demanded by Spain at noon . It was just an hour to noon ; so Rodriguez , keeping the road , told Morano to join him where it entered the wood when he had acquired his bacon . And then as they parted a thought occurred to Rodriguez , which was that bacon cost money . It was purely an afterthought , an accidental fancy , such as inspirations are , for he had never had to buy bacon .