Suddenly the voice of the girl in the nightgown sounded shrilly behind Simon.
"No! They aren't all here! John isn't here! Where's Johnny?"
There was an awful stillness, in which realization crawled horribly over chalky faces.
"B-but where can he be?" asked the short fat man in a quavering voice. "He — he must have heard the alarm—"
The military-looking man turned round and raised his voice in a barrack-square bawl.
"Kennet!" he shouted. "Kennet!"
He sounded as if he were bellowing at a slovenly recruit who was late on parade.
The only answer was the derisive cackle of the leaping flames.
The large-bosomed woman shrieked. She opened her mouth wide and yelled at the top of her voice, her face contorted with an awful terror.
"No! No! It's too dreadful. He can't be still in there! You can't have—"