It must have been a stray bullet which slipped through that chink in the stones.

For he could not have been seen--" As he spoke a cry rang clearly out.

All six men looked upwards through the open roof to the clear dark sky, where the stars shone frostily bright.
"What was that ?" asked one of the six.
"Hush," said Luffe, and for a moment they all listened in silence, with expectant faces and their bodies alert to spring from their chairs.

Then the cry was heard again.

It was a wail more than a cry, and it sounded strangely solitary, strangely sad, as it floated through the still air.
There was the East in that cry trembling out of the infinite darkness above their heads.