noon
`` You think , too , they 'll want to revenge their losses ? '' `` Of course . And they 're likely to attack again before night . It 's not noon yet , and they have lots of time . '' Paul crawled back to his tree , and , knowing that he would have to wait again , forced himself to eat the venison that Shif ` less Sol had given to him . The Shawnees remained silent and hidden in the forest , and the white men , voiceless , too , lay waiting behind the trees . Between them stretched the fallen , their brown faces upturned to the red sun , which sailed peacefully on in a sky of cloudless blue .