His trained eyes continually pierced the darkness.

At times, he stopped and listened with ears that could hear the footfall of the rabbit, but neither eye nor ear brought report of anything unusual.

The river flowed with a soft, sighing sound.
Now and then a wild creature stirred in the forest, and once a deer came down to the margin to drink, but this was the ordinary life of the woods, and he passed it by.
He went on, hour after hour.

The river narrowed.

The banks grew higher and rockier, and the water, deep and silvery under the moon, flowed in a somewhat swifter current.