Then, with surprise at her previous forgetfulness, she bethought herself of the horn in her hand. That would bring assistance. She ought to have remembered it before. The shock had put it out of her mind. She was in the act of lifting it to her lips when again her nerves were shaken by a new cry from the inner recesses of the Maze.
“Murder!”
She recognised Howard’s voice, tinged with horror. It was a loud-voiced ejaculation rather than a cry for assistance, she felt with relief. Howard hadn’t run into a trap. Before she could pull herself together, he shouted again, this time with the full strength of his lungs:
“Murder! See that no one gets away from the Maze!”
Vera’s nerves were almost attuned to the shock of the discovery. A picture of some swift and terrible act of violence crossed her mind. It must have been soon over, for she remembered that after the three cries she had heard no sound of any sort. Not twenty yards from her, it might be, a human being had been battered out of existence; and but for these cries she would have known nothing whatever.
She raised her voice again.
“Howard! I’m frightened. What’s happened?”
“One of the Shandons has been killed. I blundered into the centre, trying to get to you. There’s blood on his coat.”
He broke off for a moment, evidently gathering his breath, then again he shouted:
“Murder! Help! Here in the Maze! Murder!”