noon
`` The first and last law of the trail is to ` hold fast , ' '' Jondo said , as we broke up the circle about the camp-fire . `` If you can keep that law we will take you into full partnership to-night , '' Esmond Clarenden added , and we knew that he meant what he said . A stone 's throw from either hand , From that well-ordered road we tread , And all the world is wide and strange . -- KIPLING `` We shall come to the parting of the ways to night if we make good time , Krane , '' Esmond Clarenden said to the young Bostonian , as we rested at noon beside the trait . `` To-night we camp at Council Grove and from there on there is no turning back . I had hoped to find a big crowd waiting to start off from that place . But everybody we have met coming in says that there are no freighters going west now .