Far away across the common gleamed one solitary light in the vicarage windows; the Vicar, good gentleman, finishing his unruffled sermon while his parish slept.

Otherwise darkness spread over everything save the sky.

Not a creature on the road, not a creature on the common, not even the lame donkey.

Incredibly distant the faint sound of a railway whistle intensified the stillness.

Septimus's own footsteps on the crisp grass rang loud in his ears.