about noon
It is not necessary to give a detailed description of our friends ' doings , day after day , during their sojourn with the Mayubuna Indians ; the above indication will enable the reader to picture the uneventful sort of existence which they led ; and it is only needful to add that so well did the young Englishmen contrive matters that by the time that they had been three months in the village the suspicion and distrust with which they had at first been regarded had entirely disappeared , and the Indians seemed to have gathered the impression that their white prisoners had quite settled down and were content to spend the remainder of their lives with them . But it took fully three months to establish matters on this satisfactory basis ; and this brought the time on to what may be termed the winter season ; that is to say , the period of the year when , after a long-continued spell of fine weather , during which the crops ripen and are gathered in , the season of rain , wind , and violent thunderstorms begins which is to soften , nourish , and invigorate the baked earth and prepare it to bring forth the luxuriant vegetation of another summer . And it was one of those violent thunderstorms which provided our friends with the opportunity to escape for which they had been so long and so patiently waiting . The day had been unusually hot , to start with ; and about noon the sky , which had been clear during the earlier part of the day , had gradually become veiled by a thick haze through which the sun revealed himself with ever-increasing difficulty merely as a shapeless blotch of whiteness in the midst of the haze before vanishing altogether . Then the wind fell , the atmosphere became so oppressively close that the mere act of breathing became difficult , and a great silence fell upon the scene , for the insects and birds , warned by instinct of what was impending , sought shelter in the deepest recesses of the forest , while the Indians , unable or unwilling to labour in the enervating heat , and also knowing from past experience what was coming , retired to their huts and resigned themselves to the overpowering languor which oppressed them . Of all the inhabitants of the village , Dick and Phil were the only two who resisted the enervating influence of the hour , for Dick was away hunting , as usual , while Phil , having set himself a certain task to perform , was not the sort of man who would allow himself to be deterred from its execution by such a trifle as mere oppressiveness of weather . But as the day wore on and the sky grew ever more lowering and the heat and closeness more pronounced , he found his work growing increasingly difficult and distasteful ; and it was with a sigh of deep satisfaction that at last , having finished what he had set himself to do , he wended his way to the hut which he and Dick had been permitted to erect for themselves , and , having laid aside the primitive tools which he had been using , continued his way to the creek where , at the conclusion of each day 's labour , he was wont to indulge in the refreshing luxury of a bathe .