noon
What do you think of that ? '' `` Yes , I think we could do that , '' I replied . `` We 'll try it anyhow . But we must go in and get some dinner now : it 's close to noon . '' We did not take long over our dinner -- we were too anxious to get to work again -- and as soon as we had finished we selected from our supply of fire-wood four straight poles , each about ten feet long , and with these , a number of short pieces of six-inch plank , a hammer , a saw and a bag of nails , we drove back to the scene of action . Even a ten-foot pole , we found , was an awkward thing to get down to the bottom of the fissure , but after a good deal of coaxing we succeeded in lowering them all , when we at once set to work building our ladders . The first one , standing on the floor of the crevice , reached as high as the ledge Joe had mentioned , while the second , planted upon the ledge itself , leaned across the chasm , its upper end resting against the rock just below the bulge , so that , with the rope to hold on by , it ought to be easy enough to get up and down .