midday
Tyee was quick to note the virtues of things , and at once set his men to digging shallow trenches . `` The time will go before they are aware , '' he explained to Aab-Waak ; `` and their minds being busy , they will not think overmuch of the dead that are , nor gather trouble to themselves . And in the dark of night they may creep closer , so that when the Sunlanders look forth in the morning light they will find us very near . '' In the midday heat the men ceased from their work and made a meal of dried fish and seal oil which the women brought up . There was some clamor for the food of the Sunlanders in the igloo of Neegah , but Tyee refused to divide it until the return of the ship party . Speculations upon the outcome became rife , but in the midst of it a dull boom drifted up over the land from the sea . The keen-eyed ones made out a dense cloud of smoke , which quickly disappeared , and which they averred was directly over the ship of the Sunlanders .