midday
What did he say ? '' `` Huh ! just the regulation patter , but he used a megaphone , so I gave him best ... '' But , so far as Elsie was concerned , Boyle 's fund of reminiscence had dried up . After the midday meal on Christmas day -- a sumptuous repast , for the due preparation of which Elsie had come to the Chilean cook 's assistance in the matter of the plum-pudding -- Suarez suddenly reported that a new column of smoke was rising from Guanaco Hill , a crag dominating the eastern side of the bay . The hill owed its name , he explained , to a large cave , in which a legendary herd of llama was said to have its abode . Probably there had never been any llama on the island , but the Indians were frightened of the cave , with its galloping ghosts , and would not enter it . He was unable to attribute any special significance to the signal on that particular place .