noon
Most of the fifty Turlough had chosen from those hillmen who had joined Brian by Lough Conn , so that they were not unused to such climbing , and remained with spirits unshaken by the vast loneliness that surrounded them , and to which other men might have succumbed somewhat . Brian himself was no little awed by the desolate grandeur of the Stone Mountain , but he only wrapped his cloak more closely about him , and swore that the Dark Master should yield up the Spanish blade before many more hours . And so indeed it was done , though not as Brian looked for . Until long after noon the band wended their way with great toil and pain over the flanks of the mountain , until Turlough led Brian out to a point of black rock and motioned toward the valleys below them . `` There to the left , '' he said , `` is the valley of the Black Tarn . Do you see that smoke , Brian , and that dark spot between the trees and the lake ? '' Brian looked , squinting because of the snow-glare .