about
noon
Pat could give no account of them . He had been separated from them as I was in the snowstorm , and had ridden on , not knowing where he was going . Had I not found him , he would undoubtedly have perished . We trudged on manfully all day , stopping only for a short time about noon to eat a portion of the cold venison which we had cooked , so that there was no necessity for lighting a fire till we reached our camping-ground at night . Had we possessed more clothing we should have been saved the trouble of building a hut ; but as we had only our horse-cloths to put over our shoulders , we were afraid of suffering from the cold should we sleep in the open air . We marched straight forward without even looking for game , as we had food enough , and were unwilling to lose any time . Our belief was that we were directing our course exactly for the fort , but , after marching on for four days , I began to have some uncomfortable misgivings on the subject .