* * * * * *
Hark! What was that?
The silent watcher at the entrance started.
A faint cry from the interior of the hillock as of one calling for help, and then stillness.
For some time Godfrey had kept his ear close to the flooring of the passage, a position which enabled him to follow the footsteps of Idris. But now these footsteps had ceased, their cessation being followed shortly afterwards by the cry.
Godfrey continued to listen, but though straining his ear to the utmost he could not detect the faintest sound. A suspiciously horrible stillness prevailed within.
"Idris! Idris!" he called out, sending the full volume of his voice along the passage: and "Idris! Idris!" was echoed from the roof in tones that seemed like a mockery of his own. If the dead in the sepulchral chamber were gibing at him the effect could not have been more weird.
Again he called aloud, and again there was no answer, save the echoes of his own voice.
"My God! what has happened?" he cried.