He thought that he had experienced the depths of loneliness after
leaving the Missioner. But here it was a much larger thing. This night,
as he sat under the stars and a great white moon, with Baree at his
feet, it engulfed him; not in a depressing way, but awesomely. It was
not an unpleasant loneliness, and yet he felt that it had no limit, that
it was immeasurable. It was as vast as the mountains that shut him in.
Somewhere, miles to the east of him now, was Kio. That was all. He knew
that he would never be able to describe it, this loneliness--or
aloneness; one man, and a dog, with a world to themselves. After a
time, as he looked up at the stars and listened to the droning sound of
the waters in the valley, it began to thrill him with a new kind of
intelligence. Here was peace as vast as space itself. It was not
troubled by the struggling existence of men, and women, and it seemed to
him that he must remain very still under the watchfulness of those
billions of sentinels in the sky, with the white moon floating under
them. The second night he made himself and Baree a small fire. The third
morning he shouldered his pack and went on.
Baree kept close at his master's side, and the eyes of the two were
constantly on the alert.
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