noon
`` There are some folks in this county still giving me the laugh over that case . '' The next day Bassett hired a quiet horse , rolled in his raincoat two days ' supply of food , strapped it to the cantle of his saddle , and rode into the mountains . He had not ridden for years , and at the end of the first hour he began to realize that he was in for a bad time . By noon he was so sore that he could hardly get out of the saddle , and so stiff that once out , he could barely get back again . All morning the horse had climbed , twisting back and forth on a narrow canyon trail , grunting occasionally , as is the way of a horse on a steep grade . All morning they had followed a roaring mountain stream , descending in small cataracts from the ice fields far above . And all morning Bassett had been mentally following that trail as it had been ridden ten years ago by a boy maddened with fear and drink , who drove his horse forward through the night and the blizzard , with no objective and no hope .