noon
John followed close behind . They loped the horses across parks , trotted through the forests , walked slow up what few inclines they met , and slid down the soft , wet , pine-matted descents . So they averaged from six to eight miles an hour . The horses held up well under that steady travel , and this without any rest at noon . Dale seemed to feel himself in an emotional trance . Yet , despite this , the same old sensorial perceptions crowded thick and fast upon him , strangely sweet and vivid after the past dead months when neither sun nor wind nor cloud nor scent of pine nor anything in nature could stir him . His mind , his heart , his soul seemed steeped in an intoxicating wine of expectation , while his eyes and ears and nose had never been keener to register the facts of the forest-land .