noon
Far , far above her head the long , dusty green fronds projected from the mast-like trunk . The sun , a ball of fiery brass , burned directly in the zenith , so that the shadow of the foliage lay like a carpet about her feet . That which she had mistaken for the ever-receding eyes of Mrs. Sin , wondering with a delightful vagueness why they seemed constantly to change color , proved to be a pair of brilliantly plumaged parrakeets perched upon a lofty branch of the palm . This was an equatorial noon , and even if she had not found herself to be under the influence of a delicious abstraction Rita would not have moved ; for , excepting the friendly palm , not another vestige of vegetation was visible right away to the horizon ; nothing but an ocean of sand whereon no living thing moved . She and the parrakeets were alone in the heart of the Great Sahara . But stay ! Many , many miles away , a speck on the dusty carpet of the desert , something moved !