noon
As we marched our spirit grew . We began to laugh and make jokes about the enemy hunting for lost horses and letting us go free . For two days we rode , and camped , and slept a little , and rode on unmolested , climbing ever forward to where we could see the peaks that our friendly chief assured us were in Persia . For miles and miles and everlasting miles it seemed the passes all led upward ; but there came a noon at last when we were able to feel , and even see -- when at least we knew in our hearts that the uphill work was over . We could see other ranges , running in other directions , and mountains with tree-draped sides . But chiefly it was our hearts that told us we were really in sight of Persia at last . Then wounded and all gathered together , with Ranjoor Singh in the midst of us , and sang the Anand , our Sikh hymn of joy , our Kurdish friends standing by and wondering -LRB- not forgetting nevertheless to watch for opportunity to snatch that gold and run ! -RRB-