noon
Sometimes they slept under overhanging rocks with a fire blazing at their feet , but more often the night was spent in burrows dug in the snow . Their supply of venison ran out , and a day was lost while Pete hunted and killed a deer , and cooked strips of its flesh , to be seasoned with the very last of their salt and pepper , and kept in his knapsack . But even Marion did not lose courage or once falter , though many times her heart was in her mouth and a cold sweat on her forehead as they passed some formidable and terrifying obstacle . At length , on a bright and glittering day , when it seemed the storms had finally abandoned their enmity , they climbed slowly up the long slopes to Simpson 's Pass , and stood at noon high above a wide and wonderful world of snow , with white mountains succeeding one another , range on range , as far as their eyes could reach before them and behind . And that afternoon , as they toiled around the shoulder of Big Bear Mountain , they stopped and gazed , -- Marion with tears streaming down her cheeks , and Haig with his hands clenched tightly at his sides . For there , still far away below them , but _ there _ beyond all mistake , lay Paradise Park , very white and still and glittering in the sun ; and off at the right was Thunder Mountain , squatting among the silver peaks , its sullen head half hidden by gray-black clouds . The lamp had not been lighted in the sitting-room at Huntington 's , but the pitch log blazing in the great fireplace reddened the farthest corners of the room , and flushed the somber faces of Seth and Claire .