noon
`` Just take your rifle , '' said the ranger to Charley . `` You 'll be all alone on your return trip and with two such animals as we 've seen hereabout , it will be just as well to have it . If I were you , I believe I 'd make a pretty close companion of it and always keep it within reach . '' When they left the camp , they were burdened only with Charley 's rifle and food for the noon meal , which they stowed in their pockets . The instant there was light enough to guide their footsteps , the trio set forth . For hours they trudged through the forest , for the most part in silence . Although they traveled by a circuitous route , and with eyes and ears alert , they neither saw nor heard anything that pointed to the presence of other human beings in the forest .