Saxham shoulders his way into the ring of white faces that have gathered about the dark little muddy officer.
"What has happened to Miss Mildare——?"
The little officer answers, panting:
"The Sisters could not make her understand. She——"
The Chief speaks for him:
"She had been previously stunned by the shock of—a terrible calamity."
"The Mother-Superior has been killed. Two of the Sisters and Miss Mildare found her in the Convent chapel. They got there before evening. She must have been dead some hours. She had been shot through the lungs."
"By a stray bullet?"
"By a bullet from a revolver, fired close enough to scorch the clothes. Foul murder, and by God who saw it done——"