midday
`` It strikes me that stampeding is at best a sporting proposition . '' `` And it strikes me you two are very game about it , '' she went on , then added with the shadow of a sigh : `` What a pity you are not old-timers ! '' For two hours more they kept to the frozen creek-bed of Norway , then turned into a narrow and rugged tributary that flowed from the south . At midday they began the ascent of the divide itself . Behind them , looking down and back , they could see the long line of stampeders breaking up . Here and there , in scores of places , thin smoke-columns advertised the making of camps . As for themselves , the going was hard .