an hour after noon
The bounds of the supper approached a banquet , and the question of appetites to grace the occasion was settled . The supper was delayed . Not from any fault in the planning , but the weather had not been consulted . The herd had been grazed out on a northwest course for the day , and an hour after noon , almost the time at which Dell was to have been excused , a haze obscured the sun and dropped like a curtain around the horizon . Scurrying clouds appeared , and before the herd could be thrown together and started , a hazy , leaden sky shot up , almost due west , heralding the quarter of the coming storm . The herd sensed the danger and responded to the efforts of the horsemen ; but before a mile had been covered , it was enveloped in swirling snow and veering its march with the course of the storm . The eddying snow blinded the boys as to their direction ; they supposed they were pointing the cattle into the valley , unaware that the herd had changed its course on the onslaught of the elements .