about noon
Had the savage merely stolen him for some wild purpose -- perhaps to await a ransom ? Or could the worst have happened , and Alf be even now -- No , no . Bob could not bear that thought , and he put it from him , struggling manfully to retain hope as well as strength . And then suddenly -- when it was about noon -- he came upon the Scotsman 's pack-horse quietly grazing beneath the trees , and at a little distance Alf sitting on the ground with Red Fox prostrate , resting his head on the lad 's lap . It may seem a little surprising that Alf did not make a better resistance when he found himself being carried away on horseback . It is no easy matter for even an Indian to carry a person lying in front of him on a bare-backed broncho when the person is helpless and still . It is a yet less easy matter -- if not an impossibility -- to do the same thing with a struggling captive .