noon
To meet old friends and comrades ; to ride with them in the contests that all true men of his kind love ; to compare experiences and exchange news and gossip with widely separated neighbors -- had been a pleasure . But the curious crowds of strangers ; the throngs of sightseers from the , to him , unknown world of cities , who had regarded him as they might have viewed some rare and little-known creature in a menagerie , and the brazen presence of those unclean parasites and harpies that prey always upon such occasions had oppressed and disgusted him until he was glad to escape again to the clean freedom , the pure vitality and the unspoiled spirit of his everyday life and environment . In an overflow of sheer physical and spiritual energy he lifted his horse into a run and with a shrill cowboy yell challenged his companions to a wild race to the pasture gate . It was some time after noon when Phil checked his horse near the ruins of an old Indian lookout on the top of Black Hill . Below , in the open land above Deep Wash , he could see his cowboy companions working the band of horses that had been gathered slowly toward the narrow pass that at the eastern end of Black Hill leads through to the flats at the upper end of the big meadows , and so to the gate and to the way they would follow to the corral . It was Phil 's purpose to ride across Black Hill down the western and northern slope , through the cedar timber , and , picking up any horses that might be ranging there , join the others at the gate . In the meanwhile there was time for a few minutes rest .