noon
The race was a hopeless one for the horsemen from the start . But , according to the general method of operations adopted by the Colonel from the very beginning , no chance of a capture , however slim it might appear , was to remain untried so long as men and horses could endure . The two ruts of the wagon road led close by the grove of trees , and when the rest of us reached this spot and dismounted to await results , the three leading horsemen had disappeared long ago into the scrub-grown country to the south . As noon approached , the heat became more and more oppressive . The cameras had been screwed to the tripods and covered with our coats to protect them from the sun . The horses grazed near by . Mac was sent up one of the trees to warn us of the approach of anything like a giraffe , and the rest of us sat on the ground round the bole in the small circle of thin shade and lazily watched the black ants always crawling and climbing and zigzagging back and forth over the network of fallen twigs and leaves .