August sun at one o'clock
In addition , he was bowlegged as a greyhound , and just now he moved with a limp as though very footsore . His coarse blue flannel shirt , open at the throat , exposed a broad hairy chest that rose and fell mightily with the effort he was making . And therein lay the mystery . The sun was hot -- with the heat of a cloudless August sun at one o'clock of the afternoon . The country he was traversing was wild , unbroken -- uninhabited apparently of man or of beast . Far to his left , just visible through the dancing heat rays , indistinct as a mirage , was a curling fringe of green trees . To his right , behind him , ahead of him was not a tree nor a shrub nor a rock the height of a man 's head ; only ungrazed , yellowish-green sun-dried prairie grass .