noon
`` Ve vill drive by my place in the morning and pick me up , '' and he started for the door . At five o'clock the next morning the two heavily laden wagons crawled out on the desert trail , campwards . It was slow going , particularly after they struck the deep sand which began ten miles out of the town . Gustav Schmidt was rather silent when they stopped at noon , to water and feed their horses and to eat the lunch the Chinaman had put up for them . He was heavily coated with dust and his face had burned badly . Half way through the second sandwich he said : `` Ve 'll get even with that sun , eh ? Ve harness him and make him pump vater on us and on this damn sand , eh ?