nearly midday
Soon after midnight they halted , and building a large fire under an overhanging rock , lay down beside it . Campian , worn out with fatigue and the reaction after the day 's excitement , went into a heavy dreamless sleep . He was awakened by a push . It seemed as though he had been asleep but five minutes , whereas in point of fact it must have been nearly midday , so high in the heavens was the sun . He looked forth . Piles of mountains in chaotic masses heaved up around ; all stones and slag ; no trees , no herbage worthy of the name . One of the Baluchis handed him a bowl of rice , cold and insipid , and a chunk of mahogany looking substance , which smelt abominably rancid -- and which he turned from with loathing .