noon
No cook was busy . No kind hostess bade him come in and stay to dine . Forlornly he glanced around and made inquiry . An Arab told him that in the morning the camp had been struck and ere noon was far on its way towards the north . The priest had been on horseback to an neighbouring oasis , so had heard nothing of this flitting . He asked its explanation , and was told a hundred lies . The one most often repeated was to the effect that Monsieur , the husband of Madame , was overcome by the heat , and that for this reason the travellers were making their way towards the cooler climate that lay beyond the desert .