He crossed the brook and reached the large house almost to his own surprise.
It was noon, and the full blaze of the sun flooded the valley with light.

Not a breeze fanned the air, nothing stirred.

No vibrations troubled the picture which the cliffs, the caves, the buildings, presented in the dazzling glare.

The cliffs had lost their yellowish hue and appeared white, with every protuberance, every indentation, or cavity, marked by intense shadows.

The houses inhabited by the Eagle clan along the foot of the rocks were like a row of irregularly piled cubes and prisms; each beam leaning against them cast a jet-black streak of shadow on the ground.