eleven
o'clock
And after that arid journey the green bushes of Sinkat in the valley below comforted the eye with the pleasing aspect of a park . The troopers sat their saddles with a greater alertness . They moved in a diagonal line across the plateau toward the mountains of Erkoweet , a silent company on a plain still more silent . It was eleven o'clock . The sun rose toward the centre of a colourless , cloudless sky , the shadows of the camels shortened upon the sand , and the sand itself glistened white as a beach of the Scilly Islands . There was no draught of air that morning to whisper amongst the rich foliage , and the shadows of the branches lay so distinct and motionless upon the ground that they might themselves have been branches strewn there on some past day by a storm . The only sounds that were audible were the sharp clank of weapons , the soft ceaseless padding of the camels ' feet , and at times the whirr of a flight of pigeons disturbed by the approaching cavalcade .