the noon sun
`` I 'm glad to be here . '' He walked down the wide station room to a far exit and pushed the door open . A few steps farther and he was standing on a cement path dug into a hillside . * * * * * Across the valley , bright in the noon sun lay the pine covered slopes of the Argus mountains , and at his feet the green Mojave flowering with orchards stretched far to the north and south . Between the trees , in the center of the valley , the Sacramento River rolled southward in a man-made bed of concrete and steel giving water and life to what had a century before been dry dead earth . There was a small outcropping of limestone near the cement walk , and he stepped over to it and sat down . He would have been happy to rest and enjoy for a few moments his escape and his triumph , but he had to let the others know so that they might have hope .