To their right, and not far off, was the bay, blue as indigo.

Alcatraz seemed close at hand; beyond was the enormous green, red, and purple pyramid of Tamalpais climbing out of the water, head and shoulders above the little foothills, and looking out to the sea and to the west.
The Reservation itself was delightful.

There were rows of the officers' houses, all alike, drawn up in lines like an assembly of the staff; there were huge barracks, most like college dormitories; and on their porches enlisted men in shirt sleeves and overalls were cleaning saddles, and polishing the brass of head-stalls and bridles, whistling the while or smoking corn-cob pipes.

Here on the parade-ground a soldier, his coat and vest removed, was batting grounders and flies to a half-dozen of his fellows.

Over by the stables, strings of horses, all of the same color, were being curried and cleaned.