noon
George was thirty or forty feet , he thought , above the general level of the plain , the light was strong , and he imagined that it would take him most of the day to reach the spot over which the smoke had floated . He was , however , heading for the track , and he gathered his courage . He saw no more smoke for a long time -- the increasing brightness seemed to diminish the clarity of the air . Before noon the pain in his side had become almost insupportable , and his head was swimming ; he felt worn out , scarcely able to keep on his feet , but again a gray streak on the horizon put heart into him . It did not appear to move for a while , and he thought it must have been made by a freight-engine working about a station . Then , as he came down the gradual slope of a wide depression , a long bluff on its opposite verge cut the skyline , a hazy smear of neutral color . He determined to reach the wood and lie down for a time in its shadow .