noon
But one thing was sure , these successive defeats only served to make him shut his teeth harder together , and resolve that nothing would ever prevent him from getting that fire , if it took him a year . He might be beaten once , twice , or fifty times ; but there would come a day to the patient plodder when the door of opportunity would open for him . And surely success would stand for a great deal more if he had to work like this for it , than if easily attained . Before noon came they had arrived at the place where the stream ran into the Lower Lake of the Eagle Chain ; and when they stopped for lunch , it was upon the shore of this beautiful sheet of water . Thad had been secretly keeping an eye on Jim . He knew that the guide must feel more or less anxiety , despite his brave outward showing . And when Jim thought no one was observing he would look out of the tail of his eye at every clump of bushes that seemed any way suspicious , as long as they were upon the river .