noon
Ralph , as head of the firm you have the casting vote . '' Then , and I always regretted it , I said : `` We should never have come at all . No sensible person goes prospecting in mid-winter ; but , being here , we had better spend three days more . That means further reduced rations , but if we find nothing by the third noon we 'll turn back forthwith . '' The others agreed , and on the second night we lay in camp in a burnt forest . We were all tired and hungry , and -- for Johnston was silent -- a melancholy settled down upon the camp , while I lay nearly frozen under two blankets , watching a half-moon sail slowly above the fretted ridge of firs . At last Johnston spoke : `` To-morrow is the fatal day .