noon
A fox could not steal through their lines , unseen , and yet he never doubted . Tayoga would come , and moreover he would come at the time appointed . Toward the middle of the morning the Indians shot some arrows that fell inside the palisade , and uttered a shout or two of defiance , but nobody was hurt , and nobody was stirred to action . The demonstration passed unanswered , and , after a while , Wilton called Robert 's attention to the fact that it was only two hours until noon . Robert did not reply , but he knew that the conditions could not be more unfavorable . Rain or hail , sleet or snow might cover the passage of a warrior , but the dazzling sunlight that enlarged twigs two hundred yards away into boughs , seemed to make all such efforts vain . Yet he knew Tayoga , and he still believed .