midday
Apaches of his band had been known to traverse sixty miles a day over favorable ground , and Alchisay , even through such a labyrinth of rock , ravine , and precipice , should not make less than thirty . Within forty-eight hours of his start the boy ought to reach the Sandy valley , and surely no moment would then be lost in sending troops to find and rescue them . But four days and nights , said Blakely to himself , was the least time in which they could reasonably hope for help , and now only the third night had gone , -- gone with their supplies of every kind . A few hours more and the sun would be blazing in upon even the dank depths of the cañon for his midday stare . A few minutes more and the Apaches , too , would be up and blazing on their own account . `` Keep well under shelter , '' were Blakely 's murmured orders to the few men , even as the first , faint breath of the dawn came floating from the broader reaches far down the rocky gorge . In front of their cavelike refuge , just under the shelving mass overhead , heaped in a regular semicircle , a rude parapet of rocks gave shelter to the troopers guarding the approaches .