noon
Until late at night he walked up and down Windtown 's one street , and even climbed the cliffs above the town . Next morning he was out early , and entered the canyon as the sun began to illumine its rocky domes and cast long shafts of light across the chasm . A summer morning ride through a canyon of the Rockies is always an inspiration , but Rupert was not conscious of it . Again , at noon , he fed his horse a bag of grain , and let him crop the scanty bunch-grass on the narrow hillside . A slice of bread from his pocket , dipped into the clear stream , was his own meal . Then , out of the canyon , and up the mountain , and over the divide he went . All that afternoon he rode over a stretch of sagebrush plain .