three in the afternoon
They acted , indeed , as though they knew their safe distance and the exact range of the junior gun . The scout made a trap for them by stealing back after he had crossed a ridge , and hiding near his own trail . But the wind conveyed a warning , and the wolves merely sat down and waited till he came out and went on . All day long these two strange ban dogs followed him and gave no sign of hunger or malice ; then , after he crossed a river , at three in the afternoon , he saw no more of them . Years after , when Rolf knew them better , he believed they followed him out of mild curiosity , or possibly in the hope that he would kill a deer in which they might share . And when they left him , it was because they were near the edge of their own home region ; they had seen him off their hunting grounds . That night he camped sixty miles from Ticonderoga , but he was resolved to cover the distance in one day .