noon
`` Lose much ? '' queried Ham sympathetically , as the little company came to a halt in front of the ruins . `` Only a little worn-out clothing and some mighty poor furniture , '' laughed Dickson . `` Mollie and I calculate we can fix up the roof by noon good enough to last the few days we are likely to remain here ; and the time it takes us to do that is our only real loss . You see , we 've decided , if we get as much as twenty thousand dollars ' worth of gold out of that hole , we 'll get for New York as fast as the good Lord will let us ; and it looks now as if it was good for that much , at least , before it gives out . Why , it wo n't take more than a couple of days more to fix us all right , if the gold continues to turn up the way it did yesterday ! Hope it will be your turn next . ''