midnight
Gustav was one-armed for some time but managed to make himself indispensable , nevertheless . As summer advanced , a new working schedule that precluded labor in the middle of the day was inaugurated . The more intense the heat grew , the more intense , it seemed to Roger , grew the weird beauty of the desert . The midnight stars seemed hardly to have blossomed before dawn turned the desert world to a delicate transparent yellow , deepening at the zenith to blue and on the desert floor to orange . As the sun rose , the yellow changed suddenly to scarlet and for a few moments earth and sky quivered in a lambent red fire . When the sun had shot clear of the mountains , details of landscape and contrasts of color were accented . Clear black of peaks , crimson of canyons , purple of rifts in the ranges , bright moss green of cactus dots on the yellow desert floor .