midday
`` Tis a very bright stone we seek , very small and very shiny , like sunlight on the water . I shall know it when I see it , and I shall see it not until we reach the mountains . '' Soon Cunora 's impatience wore off , and the two concentrated upon making time . By midday they were well into the hills , following the course of a very dry creek ; and now they kept a sharp lookout at every step . Van Emmon and Smith had similarly impressed Corrus and Dulnop with the result that there was no loss of time in the beginning . The two men reached the hills on their side of the valley an hour before the women reached theirs . And thus the search began , the strangest search , beyond a doubt , within the history of the universe .