noon
` Plenty of 'em ; but we 've got out of the track of 'em . If you 'll turn off summat to the left , we 'll run foul of 'em afore dark . ' The boy did as directed , and the rattling pace was kept up for several hours . When it was noon they helped themselves to a portion of the food which they brought with them , without checking their progress in the least . True , while the boy was eating , he kept one eye on the giant who was going at such rapid strides ; but that gentleman continued his progress in an unexceptionable manner , and needed no attention . When the afternoon was mostly gone , Baldy declared that they had gone the better part of a hundred miles . The boy could hardly credit it at first ; but , when he recalled that they had scarcely paused for seven hours , and had gone a portion of the distance at a very high rate , he saw that his friend was not far out of the way .