noon
`` Up the cliffs the easiest way , '' cried Barlow , his eyes shining with excitement . `` Up there I 'll get my bearin 's and we 'll steer a straight-string line for what 's ahead , Headlong , old mate ! Step lively is the word now while it 's cool . And by noon , if we 're in luck -- '' He left the rest to any man 's imagination and hastened across the sand and to the rock wall . But more forbidding than ever rose the cliffs against the path of men who did not know their every crevice , and it was full day and the sun was up before they came panting to the top . Down went packs , with two heaving-chested , bright-eyed men atop of them , while Barlow , compass in hand , got his bearings . The devil 's own he had named this country from afar ; the devil 's own it extended itself , naked and dry and desolate before their questing eyes , a weary land , sun-smitten , broken , looking deserted of God and man .