midday
Forced to decide that instant , or arouse his friend 's distrust , the poor youth breathed a heart-felt prayer to Allah for direction and , after some show of examining the chart , laid finger firmly on a certain spot . The Emîr then marked the place in pencil with a tiny cross , and reckoned up the distance by the scale provided . `` It is quite near , '' he cried . `` We ought to be there to-morrow before midday . '' He talked of nothing else till sleeptime . Iskender listened with an anxiety that was physical pain . He wished to Allah that Elias had been there to assure him that the place had real existence .