midday
The Texan patted the neck of his cow pony , which reached round playfully and pretended to nip his leg . They understood each other , and were now making the best of a very unpleasant situation . Since morning they had been lost on the desert . The heat of midday had found them plowing over sandy wastes . The declining sun had left them among the foothills , wandering from one to another , in the vain hope that each summit might show the silvery gleam of a windmill , or even that outpost of civilization , the barb-wire fence . And now the stars looked down indifferently , myriads of them , upon the travelers still plodding wearily through a land magically transformed by moonlight to a silvery loveliness that blotted out all the garish details of day . The Texan drew rein .