Ali gestured toward the horse track and Lieutenant Beale nodded
permission. "Be back by sundown."
It was so early that the dim gray light still made for uncertain
observation when Ali halted Ben Akbar and dismounted. He bent very near
the earth, unable to see until he did so. The track was here, he had not
erred. Leading Ben Akbar, he followed, slowly at first, then faster as
the strengthening light permitted. From the crest of one hill, he looked
over the top of another and finally saw what he so desperately wanted to
see.
It was the topmost branches of a full-leafed tree, and here, in this
place of no color, it was startling as snow on a naked cliff.