midday
Now it was the only thing to do , and Kirby was glad because , fear or no fear , he wanted to go on . `` I wonder , '' he said out loud as he started , `` just what the denizens of First Street in Kansas would say to a layout like this ! '' At the end of an hour he was still wondering . At midday the canyon was chill and dank , lit only by a half light which at times dwindled to a deep dusk as the rock walls beetled together hundreds of feet above his head . Always when he stumbled through one of the darkest passages , he heard and half saw immense gray bats flapping above him . In the half-lit reaches , he hardly took a step without seeing great rats with gray coats , yellow teeth , and evil pink eyes . But rats and bats combined were not as bad as the snakes .