noon
For , after all , Black Moran had been a human being , and one -- the boy shuddered at the thought -- who , with murder in his heart , had been ill equipped for passing suddenly into the presence of his God . With tight-pressed lips the boy dragged the body into the cabin and covered it with a blanket , and then , swiftly , he recovered his rifle and revolver , harnessed his dogs , and struck out on the trail of Squigg . An hour after the storm struck , the trail was obliterated . Here and there , where it cut through thick spruce copses , he could make it out but by noon he knew he was following only its general direction . He knew also that by bearing slightly to the southward he would strike the river that led to the village of the Indians . It was nearly dark when he came out upon a flat that even in the gloom and the whirling snow he recognized as the beaver meadow from which the trail dipped to the river . Upon the edge of it he halted to examine the spruce thickets along its western side , for signs of the trail of Squigg , and it was while so engaged that he looked up to see dimly in the white smother the form of the man and his dog-team .