noon
And to-day they were seeking this place among the mountains , riding on expectantly through dark passes , climbing winding trails , looking across deep cañons and blue ridges . Gloria thought dreamily that she would like always to be riding thus , leaving summer behind and below , questing the joyous , full-sapped springtime . He had promised to show her his latest temporary camp . They came to it before noon at an altitude of well above seven thousand feet . In a grassy open space they left their horses ; King carried their lunch bundle and they went on on foot . Along the frothing creek , along the mountain-side through a wild country of dwarfed vegetation . She began to understand a thing he had told her ; that the Sierra is the land of dwarf and giant .