noon
`` Moncrossen will go out on the flood , and Wa-ha-ta-na-ta -- '' He redoubled his efforts , fairly dragging the girl through the deep slush . The rain was carrying off the snow with a rush . The gullies and ravines were running bankful , and time and again the two were forced to plunge shoulder-deep into the icy waters . At noon they halted , and in the dripping shelter of a dense thicket wolfed down a quantity of sodden bannock and raw bacon . The river rose hourly , and the crash and grind of the moving ice thundered continuously upon their ears . Progress was slow and grueling . By the middle of the afternoon they had covered about forty miles .