noon
The horses breathed heavily behind their sage-brush stable , and the sun rose higher and hotter . At last sleep came , troubled , fitful , but sleep , oblivion . This time there was no lady in an automobile . It was high noon when he awoke , for the sun had reached around the sage-brush , and was pouring full into his face . He was very uncomfortable , and moreover an uneasy sense of something wrong pervaded his mind . Had he or had he not , heard a strange , low , sibilant , writhing sound just as he came to consciousness ? Why did he feel that something , some one , had passed him but a moment before ?