The valley, the high mountain wall, and everything else were merged in obscurity.
Both the youths were oppressed heavily by the sense of danger, not for themselves, but for others.

In that Kentucky of theirs, yet so new, few people lived beyond the palisades, but here were rich and scattered settlements; and men, even in the face of great peril, are always loth to abandon the homes that they have built with so much toil.
Tom Ross and Long Jim continued to pull steadily with the long strokes that did not tire them, and the lights of the fort and houses sank out of sight.

Before them lay the somber surface of the rippling river, the shadowy hills, and silence.

The world seemed given over to the night save for themselves, but they knew too well to trust to such apparent desertion.

At such hours the Indian scouts come, and Henry did not doubt that they were already near, gathering news of their victims for the Indian and Tory horde.