noon
He led them at high noon along crowded Simla Mall to the Alliance Bank of Simla , where they wished to establish their identity . Thence he vanished like a dawn-cloud on Jakko . Behold him , too fine-drawn to sweat , too pressed to vaunt the drugs in his little brass-bound box , ascending Shamlegh slope , a just man made perfect . Watch him , all Babudom laid aside , smoking at noon on a cot , while a woman with turquoise-studded headgear points south-easterly across the bare grass . Litters , she says , do not travel as fast as single men , but his birds should now be in the Plains . The holy man would not stay though Lispeth pressed him . The Babu groans heavily , girds up his huge loins , and is off again .