And then again, his realisation of impotent confinement fell about him like a curtain! He could see nothing outside except that the small electric lamp opposite was not lighted; he could hear nothing after the first suggestion of a wide alarm.

He could add nothing to interpret or enlarge that mystery except that presently there came a reddish fluctuating brightness in the sky towards the south-east.
This light waxed and waned.

When it waned he doubted if it had ever waxed.

It had crept upon him very gradually with the darkling.

It became the predominant fact in his long night of suspense.