midday
The old monk rested well enough , but neither Leo nor I slept over much , for wonder as to what we might see from the top of that mountain banished sleep . Next morning at the dawn , the weather being still favourable , our companion returned to the monastery , whither we said we would follow him in a day or two . Now at last we were alone , and without wasting an instant began our ascent of the peak . It was many thousand feet high and in certain places steep enough , but the deep , frozen snow made climbing easy , so that by midday we reached the top . Hence the view was magnificent . Beneath us stretched the desert , and beyond it a broad belt of fantastically shaped , snow-clad mountains , hundreds and hundreds of them ; in front , to the right , to the left , as far as the eye could reach . `` They are just as I saw them in my dream so many years ago , '' muttered Leo ; `` the same , the very same . ''