four o'clock
Southward Kent could see for a long distance , and in the vivid sunlight he saw the shimmer of creeks and little lakes , and the rich glow of thick patches of cedar and spruce and balsam , scattered like great rugs of velvety luster amid the flowering green of the valley . Northward , three or four miles away the range which he had climbed made a sharp twist to the east , and that part of the valley -- following the swing of the range -- was lost to him . He turned in this direction after he had rested . It was four o'clock when he came to the elbow in the valley , and could look down into the hidden part of it . What he saw at first was a giant cup hollowed out of the surrounding mountains , a cup two miles from brim to brim , the end of the valley itself . It took him a few moments to focus his vision so that it would pick up the smaller and more intimate things half a mile under him , and yet , before he had done this , a sound came up to him that set aquiver every nerve in his body . It was the far-down , hollow-sounding barking of a dog .