The phrase "tenantless night" appears early in the novel, when John Grady and Rawlins are journeying out of Texas in pursuit of adventure and a more interesting life. By describing the night as "tenantless," McCarthy is suggesting that it is extremely empty. A tenant is someone who lives in a property or an inhabitant. If the night is tenantless, then we can assume that it is devoid of inhabitants. There is nobody living there; and yet, there seems to be a bell tolling in the darkness.

The idea of the night being "tenantless" adds to the sense of eeriness in this passage. If it is tenantless, there is nobody there, and yet the men hear a bell which should not exist. They ride out towards a "dais," which also suggests a man-made structure. We also know that the stars are filling the sky, and the active verb "swarmed" applied to these stars gives them a sense of agency, as if they are aware of the intrusion.

We are encouraged, then, to wonder whether there is something alive in the night which should not be there—perhaps something that is not a lawful tenant but that nevertheless is waiting silently in the dark. The choice of the word "tenant" in particular is telling, because the state of tenancy is a legal and official one. The fact that there is nothing technically or legally alive in the darkness does not mean that there is nothing there that, like the bell, should not be there.