noon
He rode slowly at first , curbing his crying impatience with the knowledge that restraint now meant the reserve of endurance to his horse upon which he might be forced to call before he had found her . He held to a course due north , remembering what Argyl had told him about the location of the spring . When he had gone nearly five miles he began to search to right and left , still holding to a general northerly direction , but often turning out of his course to ride to the tops of the knolls which rose here and there about him . And now he had let his horse out into a swinging gallop , urged to spare neither animal nor himself , prompted to make what haste he might by the thought that already noon had passed , that the day was half gone , that what he was to do must be done before the night came . Once -- he thought that Valley City must be at least eight or nine miles behind him -- his heart leaped with sudden hope and fear as he saw , half a mile to the east , a cluster of little sand-hills like those Argyl had told him surrounded her spring . He did not know that he was cutting his horse 's bleeding sides with his spurs as he galloped up the gradual slopes ; long ago he had forgotten all thought of conserving the beast 's strength . He knew only that the very soul of him cried out aloud that he might at last come to her , and that his eyes , ever seeking , seeking , seeking , were more than half afraid to rest upon every shadowy , stirring bunch of scrub brush , more than half afraid to run ahead of him down the far sides of the low hills .