about noon
The only trouble I had was that my wound was beginning to give me considerable pain , and I felt losing strength for want of food . I had scarce time to cat , much less to search for food , they pressed me so hard . However , a man makes a hard struggle for life , so I tightened my belt , and set to work with such good will , that I was soon a long way ahead of them , and got out of sight at a place where the river takes a number of bends and is full of small islands . At last , about noon , I reached the desired point , paddled carefully in among the reeds , so as to prevent the savages seeing where I had landed , jumped ashore , hid the canoe , stepped out as hard as I could , and -- here I am . '' `` But , '' exclaimed Lawrence , with some excitement , `` if you left the Indians so recently , wo n't they be close on your heels ? '' `` No fear . I came here in a straight line overland .