But the
quest was favoured the more by the scent of the flowers inspiring
its leader's fancies. So Morano gained even from this.
In the first hour they shortened by fifteen miles the length of
their rambling quest. In the next hour they did five miles; and in
the third hour ten. After this they rode slowly. The sun was
setting. Morano regarded the sunset with delight, for it seemed to
promise jovially the end of his sufferings, which except for brief
periods when they went on foot, to rest--as Rodriguez said--the
horses, had been continuous and even increasing since they
started. Rodriguez, perhaps a little weary too, drew from the
sunset a more sombre feeling, as sensitive minds do: he responded
to its farewell, he felt its beauty, and as little winds turned
cool and the shine of blades of grass faded, making all the plain
dimmer, he heard, or believed he heard, further off than he could
see, sounds on the plain beyond ridges, in hollows, behind clumps
of bushes; as though small creatures all unknown to his learning
played instruments cut from reeds upon unmapped streams. In this
hour, among these fancies, Rodriguez saw clear on a hill the white
walls of the village of Lowlight. And now they began to notice
that a great round moon was shining. The sunset grew dimmer and
the moonlight stole in softly, as a cat might walk through great
doors on her silent feet into a throne-room just as the king had
gone: and they entered the village slowly in the perfect moment of
twilight.
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