Moonless Dark And Forbidden Place

Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 3.

In this chapter, one paragraph begins:

"In the moonless dark..." (p. 39)

- and ends:

"...to the forbidden place." (ibid.)

Here, we quoted this paragraph and commented on its references to:

the Milky Way

a wild dog

"humans"

"ghostly" breeze and humans

Let us now further highlight first that this wild dog howls ("Howling" has come to be associated with the end of civilization) and secondly that the ghostly breeze is yet another Andersonian wind commenting appropriately on the action. A breeze that would be unthreatening by day feels "ghostly" on a moonless night. 

The paragraph is dense with Andersonian allusions and associations. It also has looming shadows, tunnels of night, a hurrying rat and swooping bats, that wealth of descriptive details that I am also currently finding by rereading Ian Fleming's much-read but under-rated novels.