It seemed to him that he had seen a projection, where there was none before.

He looked a second time, and he did not see it.

Fancy played strange tricks at midnight in the enemy's country, and in the desolate silence.
Ned shook himself.

Although a vivid imagination might be excusable at such a time even in a man, a veteran of many campaigns, he was essentially an uncompromising realist, and he wished to see facts exactly as they were.

The work upon which he was engaged allowed no time for the breeding of fancy.
He looked again and there were two projections where he had seen only one before.