the midday sun
Before them , a pair of guns were pounding away at the rocky line and its flanking bushes , and beyond , over the crest of the next ridge , scores of thick-set , burly figures were racing in search of shelter , with a fragment of the Scottish Horse in hot pursuit . Neck and neck in the vanguard raced Weldon and Carew , with Captain Frazer 's huge khaki-colored horse hard on their heels . To Weldon , the next hour was one of fierce excitement and pleasure . The shriek of the shells , long since left behind , the flying figures before them , the rise and fall of his own gray little broncho as she stretched herself to measure the interminable veldt , the khaki-colored desert , dotted with huge black rocks and shimmering with the heat waves which rose above it towards the midday sun : his pulses tingled and his head throbbed with the glorious rush of it all . And then the slouching figures were met by other slouching figures , and reluctantly Weldon drew in his horse , as the halt was ordered . Only madness would prolong the chase against such heavy odds . Mere sanity demanded that the troopers should delay until the column came up .