noon
How near that flash of steel at a bend around a tongue of chaotic rock , stretching out into the desert sea , with its command to man to tunnel or accept a winding path for his iron horse ! How long in coming to it in that rare air , with its deceit of distances ! Landmark after landmark of peak or bold ridge took the angle of some recollected view of his five years ' wanderings . It was already noon when he saw Galeria from the far end of the long basin that he had crossed , with the V as the compass of his bearings , on the ride that brought him to the top to meet Mary and Pete Leddy . Then the V was lost while the train wound around the range that formed one side of the basin 's rim . The blaze of midday had passed before it entered the reaches of the best valley yet in the judgment of a connoisseur in valleys ; and under the Eternal Painter 's canopy a spot of green quivered in the heat-rays of the horizon . His Majesty was in a dreamy mood .