When the thunder of the final explosion ceased, the low room became very still. I had a feeling that I was in a cell hundreds of feet below the surface of the earth, weighed on by mountains. With something like panic scurrying in my nerves, I got to my feet and found the door.
There was a chilly dawn light in the sky. A withered grey mist hung on the forsaken mountains. The earth looked tired and unlovely, spent by its gross passions. I knew it would look that way to me for a long time wherever I was. I wanted to get to sea again.