noon
Something about that face smiling up into his own held peculiar fascination for him , gripping him with a strange feeling of familiarity , touching some dim memory which failed to respond . Surely he had never seen the original , for she was not one to be easily forgotten , and yet eyes , hair , expression , combined to remind him of some one whom he had seen but could not bring definitely to mind . There were no names on the locket , no marks of identification of any kind , yet realizing the sacredness of it , Keith slipped the fragile gold chain about his neck , and securely hid the trinket beneath his shirt . It was noon by this time , the sun high overhead , and his horse , with dangling rein , still nibbling daintily at the short grass . There was no reason for his lingering longer . He swept his gaze the length and breadth of the desolate valley , and across the river over the sand hills . All alike appeared deserted , not a moving thing being visible between the bluffs and the stream .