noon
Armed men behind corners mean only one thing in the `` Hills . '' The animals grew weary to the verge of dropping , for the `` road '' had been made for the most part by mountain freshets , and where that was not the case it was imaginary altogether . They traveled upward , along ledges that were age-worn in the limestone -- downward where the `` hell-stones '' slid from under them to almost bottomless ravines , and a false step would have been instant death -- up again between big edged boulders , that nipped the mule 's pack and let the mule between -- past many and many a lonely cairn that hid the bones of a murdered man -LRB- buried to keep his ghost from making trouble -RRB- -- ever with a tortured ridge of rock for sky-line and generally leaning against a wind , that chilled them to the bone , while the fierce sun burned them . At night and at noon they slept fitfully at the chance-met shrine of some holy man . The `` Hills '' are full of them , marked by fluttering rags that can be seen for miles away ; and though the Quran 's meaning must be stretched to find excuse , the Hillmen are adept at stretching things and hold those shrines as sacred as the Book itself . Men who would almost rather cut throats than gamble regard them as sanctuaries . When a man says he is holy he can find few in the `` Hills '' to believe him ; but when he dies or is tortured to death or shot , even the men who murdered him will come and revere his grave .