midday
Overhead was a great blue sky and a blazing sun , and I could see the path running clear before me between the walls of scrub . But it was like midnight to me , a midnight of suspicion and unknown perils . I began to wish heartily I had never come . I stopped for my midday meal at a place called Taqui , a grassy glade in the bush where a tiny spring of water crept out from below a big stone , only to disappear in the sand . Here I sat and smoked for half an hour , wondering what was going to become of me . The air was very still , but I could hear the rustle of movement somewhere within a hundred yards . The hidden folk were busy about their own ends , and I regretted that I had not taken the road by Sikitola 's and seen how the kraals looked .