noon
Fifteen minutes along the plain trail torn through the brush by the driven carabaos brought them out on the beach . There the trail ended : it was for this that Malabanan had brought the big lorcha that the secreto had mentioned . A moment of thought and he swung northward toward Davao , again following the glistening beach . At noon , and low tide , they forded the creek and swung up off the beach to breathe the sweating ponies in the deep shade of a mango tree that spread high above the surrounding brush . Dismounting , they stood as in a huge green bowl : its bottom the smooth waters of the gulf , iridescent under a zenith sun and framed as far as the eye could reach with a slant of parched beach ; the sides of the vast concavity were formed by the verdant mat of jungled slopes that rose with ever increasing abruptness to the far , somber-edged mountains . The doughty Macabebe gave not a glance at the great panorama , busying himself in refolding the reeking saddle blankets and tightening girths , then lighted a casual cigarette . Terry , impatient of the necessary halt , paced the shadowed space restlessly after his first appreciation of the sun-drenched Gulf .