noon
All nature was waiting for the magic touch of day ; soon action and colour and sound would stir ; just then the hush and breathlessness were a strange setting for the lonely man moving forward into the deeper shadows followed close by his faithful dogs . This man who , in the mad passion of his blighted youth , had taken life as if it were but one of the many things over which he claimed supremacy , with bowed head and slow steps , was going on an errand of mercy ; he was going to claim , for a helpless human creature , assistance from the only man in all God 's world upon whom he could call with hope of success . The program , the next few days , was as clear in Farwell 's mind as if he had already followed it from start to finish . By eight Pine would be on his tracks ; by noon they would be together , the dogs grumbling and fighting at their heels . Two nights by the fire , smoking in a dull silence , broken now and then , in sheer desperation , by Farwell himself . In Ledyard 's plan there had evidently been but one stipulation : the constant guardianship with explicit reports . Beyond that there seemed to be no exactions .