Behind him the outlines of the scattered houses that made the little town were lost against the dusk of the hillside.

From the ghostly tree-shadows that marked the opposite bank, the solemn hills rose out of the deeper darkness of the lowlands that edged the stream in sombre mystery.

There was no break in the heavy clouds to permit the gleam of a friendly star.

There was no sound save the soft swish of the water against the bank where he stood, the chirping of a bird in the near-by willows, and the occasional splash of a leaping fish or water animal.

But to the man there was a feeling of sound.