Read it through once

The night closed over us, and the little yawl rocked upon the tide as if it were a toy. I lay and stared at the blackness, thinking of the vague things that the men had muttered. The forest pressed in close; a hum of insects filled the air; from a far-off shore came the cry of some animal. It was as if we had drawn near to the heart of an immense, sleeping beast. I could not shake off a certain feeling of nervous expectation that something out of the common was going to happen.