noon
The Steam Beast gave a triumphant scream heard above the roar of shuttle and steel . It was a loud , defiant , victorious roar which drowned all others . Then it purred and paused for breath -- purred softer and softer and -- slept at last . It was noon . The silence now was almost as painful to Shiloh as the noise had been . The sudden stopping of shuttle and wheel and belt and beam did not stop the noise in her head . It throbbed and buzzed there in an echoing ache , as if all the previous sounds had been fire-waves and these the scorched furrows of its touch .