midday
`` To meet the Indians , sir ? No , that would n't do . Perhaps I 'm wrong , but we 're up here now where several streams begin , and if we can only find one , no matter how small , that flows to the east , we 're all right . '' The men set off the next morning as soon as it was light , and the party in camp shot , collected , kept up the fire , and waited impatiently for the return of the little expedition , but waited in vain ; and at last in alarm Rob and Joe set off in search of them , tramping till midday and stopping to rest by a fount which bubbled out of the earth and flowed away . After resting a while they started again to tramp here and there for hours in the beautiful region near the camp , to which they returned without having seen a sign of those they sought . It must have been toward morning that Rob , who was keeping watch , heard distant voices , and hailing , to his great delight heard an answer . Ten minutes later the guide and his two companions staggered up to the fire utterly exhausted , for they had finished their supply of food , and were worn-out with their exhausting tramp .