noon
Nothing was visible but lizards , and they disappeared when the doctor called a halt in the most rugged part of a stony waste where there was an overhanging cliff and a broken gully which promised at a distance to be the home of a spring ; but though it had evidently been at one time a pool overhung by rocks , there was not a trace of moisture . It afforded a little shelter , however , in an overhanging part where there was a rugged projecting shelf , and there being nothing better , the halt was made there , only to prove too hot a one for endurance , the rocks seeming to glow , and keeping off such air as was astir as well as the sun ; so after a short time the doctor decided to go on once more in search of some more likely place . In those hot , weary hours the elasticity and cheerfulness of the boys died away . In the early morning it had been all laugh and chat and notice of everything they passed that seemed novel , but with the coming of noon quite a change came over them , and Ned took to sighing from time to time , then to murmuring , and at last after a long , low expiration of the breath -- `` Oh dear , '' he cried , `` I am getting so tired of this ! '' `` Well , you are a fellow ! '' grumbled Chris . `` Only an hour or two ago you talked as if you liked it . ''