midday
`` Guess I 'll need to smoke , too -- you see our talk needs some hard thinking . Pass me a stick from that fire . '' Bull did as he was bid . And the missionary 's eyes were on the fair head of the man as he leant down over the smouldering embers stewing his own meagre midday meal . Bull Sternford was a creature of vast stature and muscular bulk . It was no wonder that the redoubtable Laval had run up against defeat . The camp boss had lived for twenty years the hard life of the forests .