noon
He was stripped to the waist . His laugh was louder . Hatred as well as triumph glittered in his eyes , for to-day Jan Larose looked him coolly and squarely in the face , and nodded whenever he passed . It was almost noon when Jan spoke a few low words to his watchful Indian and walked to the top of the cedar-capped ridge that sheltered Porcupine City from the north winds . From this ridge he could look straight into the north -- the north where he was born . Only the Cree knew that for five nights he had slept , or sat awake , on the top of this ridge , with his face turned toward the polar star , and his heart breaking with loneliness and grief . Up there , far beyond where the green-topped forests and the sky seemed to meet , he could see a little cabin nestling under the stars -- and Marie .