noon
She seemed in an adjoining room or near place ; a little too far away to see or hear , but near enough to feel her presence and love . Just when it seemed that winter was the perpetual season , when his fingers were swollen and discolored by the cold and he had forgotten how it felt to be warm unless in bed or shoveling snow , the valley below took on emerald tints and the snow line crept up the mountain . Then John thought , `` the hill country will be fine this summer ; '' but he was told to come out of his dolomite burrow and dwell in a tent with the Arabs in Tripolitania for the summer . A place so near the equator that his shadow at noon was hid by a none too prominent stomach ; where the thermometer feels comfortable and perfectly at home at 130 in the shade and where the snow dogs of his winter home were replaced by the camel , the only reliable conveyance in the summer . The Bedouin , the Tuaregs and some of the blacks , ride the camel with ease and dignity ; but an Englishman , Italian or American on a camel looks and feels wholly out of place , and at the end of a day 's journey is an object of pity and a subject for soothing lotions . The impression that John Cornwall formed of Tripoli was that it was a vastly overcrowded city , due to a host of visiting and trading natives and the more than ten thousand soldiers , at that time , quartered in the city . The blue Mediterranean , the white beach , the brilliancy of the sun , the palm trees and the crescent city , in the main of cement or plaster buildings , with flat or beehive roofs , all white except an occasional red or green tiled one , merely emphasizing by contrast the uniformity of the building color ; make an interesting picture .