midday
`` Sure , Colonel , it would be like selling the hand off my arm or the soul out of my body . '' `` Well , well , '' said the Colonel , `` never mind . I wo n't take your answer now ; we 'll leave it open for a week . '' After the midday meal , Jim and Belle mounted and rode away . Jim thought to take matters up where he had left off , but he found Belle inclined to be shy and rather preoccupied . He made several ineffectual attempts to get her to talk , but she always relapsed into silence . They were , indeed , half-way back , when Hartigan began for the fifth time : `` You said you would tell me on the road back . ''