midnight
In answer to his question there flashed through his mind the words of Jean Croisset : `` M'seur , I know of a hundred men between Athabasca and the bay who would kill you for what you have said . '' Yes , she would go into the North . Somewhere in that vast desolation of which Jean had spoken he would find her , even though he spent half of his life in the search ! It was past midnight when he spread out the furs and undressed for bed . He opened the stove door and from the bunk watched the faint flickerings of the dying firelight on the log walls . As slumber closed his eyes he was conscious of a sound -- the faint , hungerful , wailing cry to which he had listened that first night near Prince Albert . It was a wolf , and drowsily he wondered how he could hear the cry through the thick log walls of his prison .