looked out into the Night Land, and saw that thing which came to pass.

And all the people were silent; but some said presently that the Youths
would come forth again; yet the people knew in their hearts that the
young men had gone in to Destruction; for, in truth, there was that in
the night which spoke horror to the souls of all, and a sudden utter
quiet in all the Land.

But unto me (that had the Night-Hearing) there came a great Fear of that
which might be whispered into my spirit, out of the Quietness of the
night--of the agony of those young men. Yet there came no sound, to the
hearing of the soul; neither then nor in all the years that were to
come; for, in verity, had those Youths passed into a Silence of which
the heart cannot think.

And here will I tell how that the strange Quiet which did fill all the
Land, seeming to brood within the night, was horrid beyond all the
roarings which had passed over the darkness in the time that went
before; so that it had given my spirit some rest and assurance to hear
but the far-echoing, low thunder of the Great Laughter, or the whining
which was used at times to sound in the night from the South-East, where
were the Silver-fire Holes that opened before the Thing that Nods. Or
the Baying of the Hounds, or the Roaring of the Giants, or any of those
dreadful sounds that did often pass through the night. For they could
not have offended me as did that time of silence; and so shall you judge
how dreadful was that quiet, which did hold so much of horror.

And surely it will be known that none had thinkings now, even in idle
speech, that any should have power to succour the Peoples of the Lesser
Redoubt. Neither, as I have said, had any the knowledge of the place
where it did stand.

And so was it made plain that those Peoples must suffer and come
unhelped and alone to their end; which was a sad and dreadful thought to
any. Yet had those within the Great Pyramid come already to much sorrow
and calamity because that some had made attempt in this matter. And
there had been for gain, only failure, and the sorrow of Mothers, and
the loneliness of Wives, and of kin. And now this dread horror upon us,
which concerned those lost Youths.

Now, as may be conceived, this _sure knowledge_ that we might give no
succour to the People of the Lesser Redoubt, weighed heavy upon my
heart; for I had, maybe with foolishness, held vague hopes and wonders
concerning our power to make expedition