The outstretch of turf was vacant, empty; bare--so Tom told himself--as the back of his own hand.
The sounds seemed to have ceased now that sight denied them visible cause of existence; and he began to wonder whether his hearing had not played him false, whether the whole thing was not pure fancy, a delusion born of agitated dreams.
He pushed the sash up as far as it would go and leaned further out of the window.

The luscious scent of a late flowering species of lonercera, trained against the house wall, saluted his nostrils, along with a fetid-sweet reek off the mud-flats of the Haven.

Away in the village a dog yelped, and out on the salt-marshes water-fowl gave faint whistling cries.

Then all settled down into stillness, save for the just audible chuckle and suck of the river as the stream met the inflowing tide.
The stillness pleased him.

For so many nights to come there would be none of it; but ceaselessly the drumming of the engines, quiver of the screw, and wash of the water against the ship's side .-- All the same he did not quite like the colour of the moon or that frayed flattened edge of it westward.