There was no wind moving in the boughs overhead, and there is no denying that the silence of that deserted place weighed heavily on us all.
And when we drew close to the water's edge, and saw the still water, starlit, stretching before us, a water hen sprang from the reeds almost at our feet with her shrill warning cry, and flapped out into the middle of the dark mere, leaving a long trail of broken water behind her that gleamed for a moment with dancing star sparks from the sky, as if it might have been the path of the White Lady herself.

And from all round the lake came the answering cries of her mates, sounding weird and strange through the silent gloom.
I heard Ottar draw a deep breath, and we all three started, and stood still, as if turned to stone.
"We have taken fright easily," said Olaf, as if angry with himself for being thus startled.

"My heart beats like a hammer, and I will bide here till I can do better than that." Yet he spoke in a whisper; and I saw no reason to try to answer him if I could.

Then he walked on, keeping to the right, where the ground is high, at the hill foot, but still skirting the water's edge.

Then I saw something beside the reeds, and went aside to see what it was; and, as I thought, it was a canoe that some fisher had left.