noon
`` I usually do ! '' grinned Tommy . The lads packed up the good supply of sandwiches and started off towards Katalla . It was somewhere near noon when they left the cabin , and they expected to reach the town on the coast before twilight fell , the distance being not more than fourteen miles . `` If you do n't get to town when night falls , '' Will warned , `` do n't try to camp out in the open , but keep going until you find some human habitation . You remember what happened to Bert ! '' `` Any one who comes within a half a mile of me in a lonely place , '' Tommy put in , `` will scrape the acquaintance of a bullet . ''