midday
I suppose that tomorrow that shadow would be so much shorter , and would not lie on the flat top of the stone at all . Then for a little space the sun would seem to one at the back of the altar to stand on the menhir 's top , while all the stone and the bowl where the adder lay was in full light , even as men say the sun seems to stand on the great stone of Stonehenge on Midsummer Day at its rising . I had seen that wonder once , and this minded me of it . But what Morfed saw told him that midday had come and was passing ; and all that meant to him , beyond that the time for some rite had been forgotten , I can not tell . There came from his lips a cry that was of terror and of sorrow as I thought , and the adder lifted its head from its lapping and coiled itself menacingly . He did not heed the creature , but threw abroad his hands sunwards , and began to speak hurriedly in that tongue which I could not follow ; and as his words went on the faces of his men grew haggard , and one of them wept openly . The younger threw the golden vessel he had in his hand into the pool , and turned on me a look of the most terrible hate , and his hand stole under his robes as if he sought the knife I had seen him draw when they first came .